Before the Xmen's fame
by Esperwen
Summary: This is before the Xmen were known worldwide. Or perhaps during. A group of friends have just found their powers, and don't know what to do with themselves. [DEAD]
1. Introduction

INTRODUCTION  
  
"Summer's nearly over," said Michelle to he friend Holly over the phone, "Finally. Summer was really boring this year."  
  
"Maybe because you didn't make any plans, and didn't meet people," suggested Holly dryly, "After all, according to you, every week in your past summers were packed with camp, days set for swimming, camp, piano lessons, camp, picnics, camp, birthdays, camp, back-to-school shopping, camp, family meetings, camp, camp, camp, ca-"  
  
"All right already! Are you hinting in any way that you wanted me to go to music camp this year?"  
  
"Possibly. Maybe. Chances are. Most likely."  
  
Michelle sighed.  
  
"Hey, I told you. My parents already spent too much on me with Quebec, instrument rental fees, skiing, and going to Stratford to see 'Romeo and Juliet'. Besides, Albion food was exposed to radiation, causing strange mutations of purple carrots and orange beets in the fruit salad. What's more, the staff CAN NOT cook rice. Remember Julia in grade 7? Or...Julia going into grade 8? She got sick every day. As in, SICK sick. As in, not bed-rid sick. As in, blech sick."  
  
"Yeah, yeah I remember. But the food wasn't that bad."  
  
"Hey, you're right. It was, THAT bad. The water didn't even taste right."  
  
"Oh come on Nutmeg!"  
  
"Bad rice, Hummus!"  
  
"It's not like they're Filipino like you."  
  
"Bad rice!!!"  
  
During their year in grade eight, Holly and Michelle had examined all of their friends' initials in order to make nicknames for them. Holly's were "HMS," and sounded out, her nickname from Michelle became "Hummus." Michelle's initials were "MHG," which sounded what she called "screwed," so as her middle name came from her mother's first name, Michelle's initials changed to "MEG." Michelle didn't like the sound of "Meg," so Holly added "Nut" to the beginning as Michelle could act rather crazy, and Michelle was then called "Nutmeg". They then called their friendship the "Sistership," but someone pronounced it wrong at one time, and the camaraderie was then changed to the "Sisterchip."  
  
"Ok, Sisterchip Nutmeg, I have to go now. I'll be meeting you tomorrow at John G. for the Before-School/Last-Day-O-Freedom-with-the-Group Meeting?"  
  
"Right. At 2:00 pm. Be late and die because I've got this thing with being late."  
  
"But...it's just for fun."  
  
"T-U-F, tuf. Just come. Remember our plan?"  
  
"Yes. You've only outlined it eight times since I called. Now bye. Sisterchip!"  
  
"Chip."  
  
"Ip."  
  
"Ip."  
  
"Puh."  
  
"Puh."  
  
"Ip."  
  
(Click) 


	2. The BeforeSchoolLastGroupMeet4ABitMeet

"Why do my friends always take so long?" Michelle asked herself, pacing on the school playground's bridge, "All I'd asked was that they'd come on time. But nooooooo."  
  
The 13-year-old looked at her watch. It read 2:15 pm.  
  
"Maybe they got caught in traffic," offered Michael, who was sitting at the bottom of one of the slides.  
  
Michael had known Michelle all her life. He was a year older than her, but still her height. His family and her family had been close friends for quite a few years. After all, it was Michael's mother that got Michelle's parents to meet each other.  
  
"On a Saturday? 1 hour and fifteen minutes after the end of the average worker's lunchhour?  
  
"It's 2:15?"  
  
Michelle checked her watch, and replied, "No. It's 2:17."  
  
"Maybe your watch is ahead."  
  
Michelle went down the slide, making sure her heels came in contact with Michael's back.  
  
"Ouch! What?!?"  
  
"Of course my watch isn't ahead. It takes perfect time."  
  
"To what? Uganda time?" teased the fourteen-year-old boy.  
  
Michael was staying at Michelle's place for awhile, while his parents and sister were on a trip in the Philippines. His mother was Philipino, but his father was English. Michael didn't care to go to visit his mother's relatives, so he stayed in Canada. As his parents were missionaries, he usually stayed in Uganda. But every two years, his family would come to Canada for at least three weeks. This time, however, the Bertrand family wanted to go to the Philippines as well. So to save air fees, they let Michael stay in Canada. He would go to school with Michelle when school started, but in the tenth grade, instead of the ninth with Michelle. Cherry, Michael's sister, would go to school in the Philippines. The parents would be taking a year off from their job.  
  
"Ha ha no. My watch is running on Canadian time," retorted Michelle. She leaned on one of the wooden supports for the playground, and asked quietly, "Is your staying here by any chance related to something about a gang in any way?"  
  
Michael stopped playing with gravel and looked at her.  
  
"Did my parents tell you that?"  
  
"No..." Michelle heisitated, and said, "Your parents told my parents in the living room upstairs while I was coincidentally in the kitchen behind a closed door."  
  
Michael chuckled, "And my parents think you're a sweet, innocent girl."  
  
"Nothing wrong with coincidence, right?" smiled Michelle.  
  
"Are you telling your friends...you know..." Michael raised his eyebrows.  
  
"As long as Holly comes, and you don't back out," came his answer.  
  
"Are those some of your friends?" asked Michael, standing up and pointing to a fairly chubby girl walking with an annoyingly perky boy across the field.  
  
"Um..." Michelle shaded her eyes from the sun, "Yep. That's Melissa and Adam. And Geordie and Phil are running to catch up. They must have caught the bus right after them."  
  
"Adam's the one that's your boyfriend, right?" asked Michael.  
  
Michelle examined his face. Was it just her, or did Michael sound wistful?  
  
"Sort of. I can't really date him since he's atheist," mumbled the girl. She caught his eyes, and said, "Be nice, ok?"  
  
"I'll be nice to the girls, as well as Phil and Georgie, but-"  
  
"It's Geordie."  
  
"What?"  
  
"His name's Geordie. Call him Georgie and he'll have a fit," she saw his confused look, and shook her head. "Just call him Geordie. I'll explain later."  
  
"Ok..."  
  
By now, the majority of Michelle's circle of friends had gotten to the Playscape.  
  
"Hey," said Adam, quickly rushing up to hug Michelle, "How're you?"  
  
"I'm fine," replied Michelle.  
  
Adam sighed. She always answered people that way.  
  
"You deserved it! Moe! Hey! How have you been?!" exclaimed Michelle to Melissa, being overly enthusiastic on purpose.  
  
"Shut up on the fact that I deserved the Science award, and the Moe. Anything but the Moe," said Melissa as ominously as she could.  
  
"Yeah, I missed you too," said Michelle, toning down the enthusiasm. She knew Melissa would never say that she missed her to her face.  
  
"So Geordie, how did world domination go?" Michelle asked, turning to the fourteen-year-old boy.  
  
"Meh."  
  
"Ok, sounds great. And...oh yes...Phil..."  
  
"Hi..." murmured Phil in a dull tone, and then suddenly pasted on a smile and said loud and enthusiastically, "HI MICHELLE! HOW'S IT GOIN'?!?!?" and then instantly went into 'blah' mode.  
  
"It's been fine. Everyone, this is Michael," introduced Michelle, returning to her original place beside him, "He's been a family friend for pretty much all his life, and is staying at my place for a while (no cracks about a live-in boyfriend please). And now I think we should go under the Playscape."  
  
Through all this, Michael and Michelle had been facing the other four in the group. In other words, the four missed seeing Holly's wave to Michelle from down the field several feet. And when Michelle and Michael turned, the others wondered why the originally humid, sunny day suddenly became a chilly downpour.  
  
"Hey Holly!" yelled Michelle over the wind, "This is Michael, the friend I was telling you about!" she called, pointing to the latter.  
  
"Hey Mike! And hey guys! Nice weather we're having, huh?" called Holly.  
  
"Yeah!" agreed Melissa, "Beautiful!"  
  
Melissa and the newcomer boys stared at Holly. For, while rain was whipping all around them, Holly was walking in a personal ray of sunlight, completely dry.  
  
"Ok Humus. Cut!"  
  
Immediately, the skies cleared.  
  
"You never warned me that she was that strong," accused Michael.  
  
"She didn't warn me," replied Michelle, looking at the other half of the Sisterchip.  
  
"I'm sorry, I don't know my own power," apologized Holly in her 'Superhero' voice. "I shall try to tame it."  
  
"You mean...she...?" Phil left the sentence unfinished.  
  
"My yearbook quote was 'I have a wide variety of superpowers.' But that's not entirely true. I'm just like Storm."  
  
"Cool! You can control the weather! Make sure that most snow days are during Math test days, ok Holly?" asked Geordie.  
  
"Sorry, Geordie. I already tried begging her with History test days. It didn't work," said Michelle with mock sadness.  
  
"So that's what you were begging for. It took you 57 minutes to give up," recalled Michael.  
  
"Eh-he..."  
  
"All right, all right, all right. What do we do about drying?" asked Adam. Like everyone else, (except Holly) his hair and clothes were plastered to his body.  
  
"And this is why I wore a black shirt," said Michelle as she walked to her hidden backpack, "And now I shall surprise you all by being even more organized!"  
  
"!!!" went her friends except Michael.  
  
"What about it?" whispered Michael to Melissa.  
  
"She never brings in homework! Well...almost never..." she replied.  
  
"I bring you...towels!" cried Michelle as she brought from her backpack six big towels.  
  
"Thanks," said Adam, and the top one levitated on its own to him.  
  
"Eek! I mean...uh.*cough*"  
  
"Cool..." commented Melissa, "Telekinesis."  
  
{And telepathy,} came Adam's voice from inside all of their heads.  
  
"Whoa! Ok, warn me next time!" exclaimed Michael.  
  
{Ok...}  
  
"You're lucky," said Melissa, "Your mutation is somewhat interesting. Mine's just weird."  
  
"How?" asked Phil.  
  
"I heal myself. And other people or animals. I found out when I cut myself while cutting vegetables. The cut disappeared, and all I had to do was wipe away the blood. And when my cat got bit, the bite healed while I stared at it. I wasn't touching it or anything," Melissa grinned, "I'm glad I could tell you guys. My family would think this was really weird, and treat me differently."  
  
"I'm just glad we're accepting everything. I showed my sister my talent, and she really freaked out. She promised not to tell my parents ahead of time, so they won't know about it," said Holly.  
  
"Hey guys!" yelled Phil, suddenly. He was on the Playscape bridge. "I am here..." suddenly there was a puff of blue smoke where he was standing, and Phil re-appeared behind Melissa. "And now I am here! Hey-hey!"  
  
"Whoa!" exclaimed Melissa, "Don't do that! You don't make any sound!"  
  
"Hey Phil, does the cloud thing smell like cigarettes?" asked typical Geordie.  
  
"No, why?"  
  
"Oh. Ok, 'cuz it looked like cigarette smoke," Geordie shrugged. With everyone watching, a ball of fire hovered over Geordie's right hand. With the other hand, a trail of ice came and froze the flames.  
  
"That's neat," commented Adam.  
  
"That's it? Just 'That's neat,' from Adam?!?" ranted Geordie after about ten seconds, "None of the rest of you even go: 'hm'?!?! Oh! How about this..."  
  
Geordie put his left hand palm up, and carefully made a long-stemmed ice- rose. He then walked over to Holly, and on one knee said dramatically:  
  
"Juliet, Juliet, wherefore art thou, Juliet...something, something...ah forget it! Just take the rose!"  
  
"No thanks. The ice-rose has been done," replied Holly.  
  
"But...but..."  
  
"Here, pass me that?" asked Michael, reaching his hand out for the rose.  
  
Geordie passed it to him, and he walked to where Michelle was, toweling her hair.  
  
"Stay there," ordered Mike, "See Geordie, this is how you do it."  
  
He went around Michelle, put an arm around her shoulders, and with the other hand, presented her the rose. "Aye me!" said Michelle as she pretended to faint.  
  
"Show off..." grumbled Geordie and Adam, while everyone else laughed.  
  
"Looks like I've got competition. Fine. Two can play at that game," thought Adam to himself. 


	3. Two of a Kind

"Hey, Michelle. Michael. Do either of you have gifts?" asked Phil.  
  
They looked at each other, and Michelle said, "Yes, we do. They're about the same, though, only Michael needed to touch one first."  
  
"What?" went Holly and Melissa.  
  
"That could be taken wrong..." said Geordie.  
  
Michelle threw a towel at him.  
  
"Just for that, Michael's on his own."  
  
"Whoa, wait a moment. You kept after me making sure that I wouldn't back out. So don't you back out now."  
  
"Fine, fine. Ok," Michelle said, sounding anything but ok, "But you go first."  
  
"All right." Michael looked straight ahead, arms held loosely at his sides, not looking at anyone, concentrating. Then, a light mist came up around him, and Michael wasn't Michael anymore. He was mostly blue, and had feathers, two claws, two wings, and a beak. And he was hovering where his head was originally.  
  
"Whoa...you're a budgie!" exclaimed Adam.  
  
{Pretty much,} said Michael, {I'd be an eagle, but Michelle doesn't own one.}  
  
"Wait, I know that Michelle's budgie's a female. So you're a female budgie now?" asked Holly.  
  
"Quick sex change," commented Geordie.  
  
"Geordie!" Melissa exclaimed.  
  
{Uh...I never thought of that. Michelle?}  
  
"Here. Land on my finger."  
  
{Depends. Where are you gonna look?}  
  
Michelle rolled her eyes at him.  
  
"At your beak. I can't see the colour of your beak with you flying like that."  
  
"That could also be taken wrong," said (you guessed it) Geordie.  
  
Mike landed on Michelle's index finger and she looked closely at his beak.  
  
"It's coloured blue," announced Michelle, "You're a male budgie."  
  
{So I'm gonna assume now that all my morphs are going to be male.}  
  
"Wait, you said Michelle could do basically the same thing. So...Michelle, you can morph?" asked Phil. "Yep. And I'm cooler cuz I can morph imaginatively. I need not go through the troubles of acquiring. My budgie was really hard to catch. Oh, and best of all, I don't think there's no time limit."  
  
"How do you know?" asked Melissa.  
  
{She's crazy, and she stayed as a bat for a week. AND THEN SHE MADE ME DO THE SAME!!!}  
  
"What did your parent's say?" asked Phil.  
  
"Oh, I was staying at his place during that time, while his parents were gone, and my parents had stuff to do. I could've stayed as a bat for two weeks, but he made me change back."  
  
{Both our parents don't know about this.}  
  
"As well as my brother."  
  
"Make that, all of our parents," corrected Geordie.  
  
"So Michelle, morph," urged Phil.  
  
"Ok, but one more thing. Melissa, you still interested in looking like a pirate? Long story, Mike."  
  
"Sure, why not?"  
  
"Then drape a towel over one of your shoulders. I don't want to claw you."  
  
{And I will get of your finger now,} said Mike as he alighted, though not before Michelle stroked his feathers, as Adam noticed.  
  
Michelle didn't concentrate as hard as Michael did. Later she explained this was because she morphed as much as she could, every chance she got. Michael was more reserved.  
  
Once Michael flew off, almost instantly the air sparkled around her, and her body was replaced by a macaw parrot.  
  
{And now we have, Pirate Moe! Scurvy, dreaded pirate of the seven seas!} said Michelle as she landed on Melissa's towel covered shoulder.  
  
"Arr!" went Melissa.  
  
{And I don't care too much for this morph. Oh, wait. There's something I've always wanted to do,} Michelle as the parrot opened it's beak and rasped, "Awk! Polly don't want a cracker! Polly don't want a cracker! Awk!"  
  
"That's what you've always wanted to do?" asked Adam incredulously, "Just that?"  
  
{Either do it or hear a parrot say it. Why are parrots usually named 'Polly' anyway?} asked Michelle as she left Melissa to land on the ground.  
  
{Maybe because the name 'Polly' starts with a letter 'p', just like parrot,} answered Michael. He morphed back into himself.  
  
"Nooooo," gasped Phil sarcastically.  
  
"Ah well," shrugged Holly, "It's Nutmeg's purpose in life to do pointless things. She says so herself."  
  
"Well, she's doing a very good job of it," nodded Melissa.  
  
"Speaking of which..." Phil looked around, frowning, "Where is she?"  
  
The other's looked around as well. They couldn't see Michelle either.  
  
"Eh...what morphs can she do that are invisible?" Geordie asked Mike and Holly, "I mean, I don't like the idea of our not seeing Michelle. She can be very mischievous and-AGH!!"  
  
Suddenly, an abnormally strong gust of wind knocked Geordie off of his feet.  
  
"Holly! What was that fo-WHOA!!" Geordie jumped up only to be knocked down again.  
  
"He-he...That wasn't me, Sir Graceful."  
  
"Then who was it?!?"  
  
"It's just a little wind..." the air whispered into Geordie's ears, once he was up again.  
  
"Agh!! A wind spirit!! It's talking to me!!" yelled Geordie, falling over yet again, "It's come to kill me!"  
  
Just then, Michelle appeared beside Geordie.  
  
"Do you really need to practice your dramatic skills all that often now? Give me a break!"  
  
"Um...I'm lost. I didn't hear anything before Geordie fell over for the third time screaming," said Adam, "Could someone please explain?"  
  
"I second the motion," added Melissa.  
  
"And I third it. The bill is passed," added Phil, "I mean...hi."  
  
"Basically..." started Holly, then she looked at Michael, "Here. You'd probably explain it better."  
  
"Ok. Michelle's extremely talented, as in freakily extremely talented, and she can morph into any animal, water, the wind, music, fire, light itself, even mythical creatures. But no in-animate objects."  
  
"Michael, on the other hand," continued Michelle, "Has a slightly more difficult task. His morphing, though without a time limit, requires actual, obtained DNA. If you read Animorphs, you get this. If not, then basically he needs to acquire actual morphs through touch."  
  
"He needs actual animals?" Phil whistled, "That's gotta be tough. But what about acquiring Michelle while she's in morph?"  
  
"Believe it or not, it works," answered Michelle, "We tested this on me as a lion...by the way, he has personal reasons to want to be able to protect himself...and it worked."  
  
"Personal reasons?" thought Melissa.  
  
"What if, say, you got a person in morph to mate with either another animal or another morpher. What would happen to the kids?" asked Geordie.  
  
"Let's not go there," answered Michelle, giving him a look.  
  
"Why not?" asked Geordie, trying not to laugh.  
  
Michelle quickly transformed into a grey wolf, and crouched, baring her teeth at Geordie.  
  
{Because I know you, and you probably have something very twisted in mind. Besides, I'll bite you if you keep this up. And you know I will.}  
  
"Down girl...good girl...stay there while I run away..." said Geordie quietly as he backed away, "Ok, ok, we'll drop this idea."  
  
Michelle transformed straight into a golden retreiver, and sat smiling, letting her tongue hang out.  
  
{Good.}  
  
"So...what do we do now? Michelle's original plans were to talk about...ok, she said slave labour, which I don't-"  
  
Michael was interrupted by Melissa's laughing, and frowned at her until she stopped.  
  
"Sorry," Melissa tried to smother her giggles, "Go on."  
  
"As I was saying...she originally wanted to talk about school and stuff, but then she also wanted to show you guys my, Holly, and her mutations so that maybe you'd tell us if you had mutations of your own. And she also wanted to introduce me."  
  
{But now we don't have anything to do here that would include all of us.}  
  
"Then let's just exclude Mike!" suggested Adam.  
  
{That would be mean.}  
  
"Boo."  
  
"I told my parents that I'd only be here for an hour, and it's nearly three o'clock now," said Melissa, "I live pretty far, so I have to go now."  
  
"And my parents don't know I'm out of the house, and they'll probably come home from work in about an hour," said Holly, " I still have some chores to do before they get back, so I have to get walking now."  
  
"I'm staying over at Phil's until school starts," added Geordie, "And for some reason, his parents don't trust us leaving the house together for extended amounts of time."  
  
{I wonder why,} thought Adam privately to Michelle and Michael.  
  
"So in other words, we have to head home," finished Phil, and he and Geordie ran to catch up with the girls.  
  
"Um...I've got nothing to do for a couple hours. My mom knows where I am, but doesn't expect me back since I'm going to my dad's house. And he won't be home until about six."  
  
{Then come over to my place. My parent's don't really care who comes over, and won't be back 'til seven.}  
  
"Yeah, come on."  
  
Adam shrugged, "Sure. Could I talk to Michelle for a moment, Mike?"  
  
"Ok."  
  
Michael jogged a bit of the way ahead of Michelle and Adam, going down Lloyd Manor Road, and led the way home.  
  
{What did you want to talk about, Adam?}  
  
{Guess.}  
  
{You're wondering how I feel about Michael.}  
  
{You're good. Now make that a question and answer it.}  
  
{Well...we've been friends for a long time. He's a lot like a brother to me. And...lately you haven't been very interested in me.}  
  
{What do you mean?}  
  
{We never talk much. We never talk about anything deeper than Pokemon.}  
  
{Well, you always block. You never offer any information or bring anything up.}  
  
{What CAN I talk about. Admit it, we have nothing in common. You want nothing to do with my religion, and it's important to me. It doesn't seem like you care about my family. You don't want to hear about anything personal. All you really want are the kisses, the sweet talk...and that isn't really all that important in a relatonship.}  
  
{In other words, you wish that you could get more from me? That I'm not giving enough attention to you?}  
  
{I don't care about the attention! I just want you to realize that there's more to me than my body. Ok?}  
  
{Do you honestly think I'm that shallow?}  
  
{It certainly seems that way.} 


	4. Gang fight sort of

Michelle ran to catch up with Michael. He was in his golden retriever morph, like her.  
  
{Hey. Where's Adam?} asked Michael.  
  
{He decided to go home instead,} Michelle answered.  
  
{Any reason why?}  
  
{Possibly.}  
  
{Any reason that has to do with me? And you? Directly related, actually, to specifically me and you?}  
  
Michelle hesitated.  
  
{Yes...}  
  
{Anything about concern of a personal relationship between us that goes beyond friendship?]  
  
{Why is it that we always seem to ask questions we already know the answers of?}  
  
{Was that one of that type of questions?}  
  
{Are you trying to confuse me on purpose?}  
  
{Does it seem that way?}  
  
{Are we suddenly playing that questions game where you can only ask questions?}  
  
{What do you think?}  
  
{What do you think I think?}  
  
{What do you think I think you think?}  
  
{Did the game just get more complicated?}  
  
{Is that a gang fight?}  
  
Michael looked toward the Dominion Plaza, where a small crowd of teenage boys surrounded something. They seemed to be pushing around the something. The something seemed to be yelling at them.  
  
{Yeah, that's a fight.]  
  
He began to walk on.  
  
{Shouldn't we stop and help out?} Michelle asked, jumping into his way.  
  
{We'd get in trouble by that gang if we did.}  
  
{It's not like we're wearing our faces right now.}  
  
Michael realized that she was right. They were in morph. So, no-one would recognize them.  
  
{Ok, fine. But I'd rather a larger dog. Or SOME kind of animal that can fight, and that is actually found in the city.}  
  
Michelle checked to make sure no-one was watching, and changed into a german shepherd.  
  
{This big enough for ya?}  
  
{Let me just aquire you.}  
  
Michael transformed back to himself, and put his hand on Michelle's head. Early on, they'd found out that he could only aquire morphs while he was human. As soon as he could, he transformed into another german shepherd.  
  
{I'm set. Come on! Let's go!}  
  
Both dogs ran across the street, of course making sure they weren't about to become roadkill. Both pounced on the first to gang members they came to. It would have been a quick fight, considering that the gang was totally off guard, and had only meant to scare the girl that they had swarmed. The two didn't bite to kill. They really mostly just growled and nipped and people's ankles or arms. Most of the gang ran off, but two of the guys stayed behind. Mike and Michelle stood between them, and the girl, snarling. To their surprise and horror, one teen grew a metal claw on each wrist, like a cheetah's dewclaws, but longer and certainly sharper. The other, the couple already realized, was much stronger and quicker than they had bargained for.  
  
{Oh my gosh...I recognize one of those guys,} Michelle told Michael privately.  
  
{Where's he from?}  
  
{He goes to Martingrove. Or will. The guy with the dewclaws is named Scott. I don't know the other guy, but I guess they're related. They look somewhat alike.}  
  
{Brothers?}  
  
{Dunno. I didn't know Scott that well.}  
  
"C'mon Scott. The girl's freaked out enough," the other teen said.  
  
Glancing back, Michelle realized that the girl was still there, sitting on the ground, holding her wrist.  
  
"No way, Matt. We gotta teach those dogs a lesson. They just terrorized the rest of our cousins."  
  
"Thanks a lot!!!" the girl yelled indignantly, "I think you sprained my wrist!!"  
  
{Oh no...}  
  
{What?}  
  
{It's Diana. My friend, but still the world's stupidest bigmouth that ever drew breath.}  
  
{And yet she's your friend?}  
  
{Didn't I just say that?}  
  
{Do I look like I.I'm not gonna start.}  
  
Just then, they heard a woman calling for Scott and Matt.  
  
"That would be my mom. Come on, Scott; she'll have a fit if we don't go now," said Matt.  
  
Scott swore, and sheathed his claws.  
  
"Some other day then," he said as they left, "I'm sure we can find those dogs again."  
  
All three watched as the two guys finally left the parking-lot of the plaza. Michelle privately told something to Michael, and both ran in opposite directions.  
  
"Wait...!" Diana started, but both were too fast for her.  
  
As soon as Michelle was out of sight, she transformed into the wind and flew to were Michael was waiting, still as a dog. She transformed human and Michael held onto part of her shorts, and tugged her towards Diana, while Michelle pretended she didn't know him.  
  
"Hey! Let go of me! Agh! What do you want!? Let go! Stupid dog...Diana!"  
  
Michelle ran up to her friend while Michael ran to transform back.  
  
"What happend to you?"  
  
Diana was wincing, still holding her wrist. She looked a bit disheveled after the gang incident.  
  
"Scott and some of his cousins came and started harrassing me. I think they sprained my wrist."  
  
"Let's see?"  
  
Michelle examined Diana's wrist, telling her to move in into certain positions, asking whether it hurt or not.  
  
"I think it's just a minor sprain. You will want to get that bandaged tightly as soon as you can. You live close to here. Think you can make it home?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm good," she answered as she got up.  
  
"Great. If it's bandaged ok, you'll be fine in about a week or so. You'll be in time for school."  
  
"Oh wonderful. I'll have no excuse for skipping gym."  
  
"Hey Michelle!"  
  
Michael ran up.  
  
"What was with that dog?"  
  
"Dunno. It dragged me here."  
  
"Yeah, well, it wouldn't let me get near you."  
  
"Oh hello," Diana smiled at him beamingly and stepped closer to him, "And who is this?"  
  
"Oh, hi. My name's Michael."  
  
"Really?" Diana said, drawing out her words.  
  
"Good grief..." Michelle thought, "She's gonna flirt with him too."  
  
"I seem to meet a lot of Michaels," Diana continued, and she touched his arm. Michael looked at Michelle. He had his 'get-her-away-from-me' look. Michelle shrugged and made a 'she's-always-like-this' look.  
  
"Wow, you're so hard. Do you work out?" Diana asked him.  
  
"Actually yes," Michael answered.  
  
He moved away from Diana and stood behind Michelle, putting his arms around her.  
  
"What's it to you?"  
  
"Uh, isn't Michelle dating Adam?" Diana asked, fuming slightly that Michael had brushed her off.  
  
"No, actually, I'm not dating Adam," Michelle answered, "Didn't you have a wrist to bandage?"  
  
"Oh...right. Right! Of course! I gotta go now," Diana answered. She started to leave, but then turned around and asked, "Michael, would you like to come over to my place for a while? I live just over-"  
  
"No thanks," cut in Michael, "I promised Michelle I'd come over to her place."  
  
With that, Diana left. 


	5. My Life Sucks

{What's with her?} Michael asked Michelle, {Is she some sort of whore or something?}  
  
Both were flying home now, in robin morph. The weather was humid, so neither cared for the long hot walk back to Michelle's home.  
  
{That's just her,} Michelle answered. She veered away for a moment, doing a little dance in the air, {She says that she's changed, but she hasn't really. Not too much, anyway. Flying is so much fun...}  
  
{Yeah. It's definitely relaxing,} Michael agreed, {Too bad we can't do this that often. How would your parents react if they found out that we could do this.}  
  
{They would say that it was a wonderful blessing, but that I must be careful with it, responsibility is growing with me now, I can't use it for foolish purposes, yadda yadda yah.}  
  
{You don't always agree with your parents, do you?}  
  
{I rarely do now,} answered Michelle, {But I still try to obey them. Even if I think that they're wrong. But not all the time. I argue a lot with my mom. Actually, it's her that gives the most instructions, and never really cares what I think. My dad knows me better than her.}  
  
{How come? You're a girl, so your mom's supposed to know you really well.}  
  
{Does your dad know you well?}  
  
{No...} Michael hesitated, then added, {It's not like he really cares what I think. Or my mom, or Cherry.}  
  
{You so sure?} Michelle quickly turned and hovered in front of Michael, blocking his way, {Are you sure that they don't actually want to know about you, but don't know how to ask? Or maybe you don't want them to know?}  
  
{All right, fine,} Michael flew over Michelle, and resumed his course, {Maybe I don't tell them anything. But if they found out...}  
  
{Like they found out about those two gangs that're after you? They kept you away from the Uganda so that you wouldn't get hurt, and kept Cherry away so that she wouldn't be targeted either,} Michelle sighed, {Listen, they spoke to me before they left for the Philippines. They wanted me to make sure that you wouldn't get mixed up in the stuff that you were in before. They didn't tell me why, and it's not like I'm some kind of expert with this.}  
  
{Hey, it's not like I can do anything about this now. I'm a people- pleaser. I told you all this. It's my life.}  
  
{For how long?!?} Michelle suddenly yelled.  
  
Up to this time, she had been talking calmly. Now, as they landed in Michelle's backyard, she started yelling. Both transformed human, knowing that her parents and cousin were either working or at a relative's house.  
  
"Listen, what would quitting marijuana and avoiding those gangs mean now? Eventually I'll go back to the way I was before!"  
  
"Either that or you'll DIE because of substance abuse, or by some gang member. You know it too! It really isn't your life anymore!"  
  
"So you're saying that you're in charge of it now?"  
  
"NO! I'm saying that it's really pitiful that you're giving up on yourself! What is you life now anyway? Making out with every girl you date, dating one person for today, then switching to someone else the next? Beating up people and then get hunted down by the rest of their friends? Drinking, and taking pot so that people will be 'friends' with you?"  
  
"What about you? Do you have the perfect life?"  
  
"I never said that."  
  
"What's your life then?"  
  
"If you think my life's great, how would you feel about getting yelled at by parents when they're tired or worried or angry, and feel like taking it out on you, just because you happen to be in the room? Being a stand-in mom for your younger brother, because his real mother is always too busy? Acting as a tutor, and only person in the house that he can talk to without being laughed at? Worrying about your grandfather, who is hospitalised, and if he gets a second heart-attack, he'll die because no-one can treat him, and yet not being able to talk with anyone because the only person that will listen is too young to be worried about something like this? Being all of your friends' support, and helper, and yet never having anyone to lean on yourself? About being totally ignored in your family, because you used to be a cry-baby, and then a bully, and now no-one cares about you? Do you find that a perfect life?"  
  
Without waiting for an answer, Michelle ran inside to her room and slammed the door.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Michelle..." Michael knocked on her room's door for the fifth time. He'd given her half an hour to cool down, and was now trying to talk to her again. "Michelle...come on. You can't stay in there forever."  
  
"It's not like I intend to," came a muffled reply.  
  
Michael opened the door. It immediately got caught on something on the floor, and he needed to lean on the door to get a large enough opening to walk into the room. He closed the door behind him. Michelle was curled up on her bed, hugging a pillow. Her eyes were red.  
  
"Join the pity party."  
  
"You know your room's a mess?" Michael said gently. He sat on the edge of her bed.  
  
"It's not like I ever want to clean up. I'm too lazy to do that," answered Michelle. She looked at him, "I'm sorry about blowing up. It's really none of my business to do that," she said, sitting up, beside him.  
  
"Hey, it's ok," he took the pillow from her and put his arms around her, cradling her, "I didn't know that you had problems like that. I didn't hear about your grandfather. And your parents always seemed so nice."  
  
"My parents like you. And it wasn't always like this. In...grade 5, my aunt wanted her own house, where she, her sons, and my grandparents could live. So, to make ends meet, when she moved out, my dad found a job. And it's been hard since he'd always been around."  
  
"At least you have an excuse. It wasn't your fault. Me, I-"  
  
"-found really bad friends and ended up joining a gang, and didn't realize it until they wouldn't let you hang around anyone else. Right?"  
  
"Hey, you really do listen."  
  
"I tend to do it a lot."  
  
Both looked at each other, and couldn't help but grin foolishly.  
  
"Adam really doesn't like me, does he?" asked Michael.  
  
"No," answered Michelle, shaking her head.  
  
But both didn't seem to care. 


	6. We Need Reinforcements

"Ah, bleep," grumbled Michelle as she checked the mail.  
  
"What?" asked Michael, looking up briefly before resuming his task of bothering three of the family's lovebirds.  
  
"I got a letter," Michelle answered, and after glancing at her friend, "Stop poking a stick at those birds. They'll make a fuss later when I feed them."  
  
"Oh my goodness," Michael gasped sarcastically, "A letter. So? And didn't you feed those birds this morning? And aren't they your parents' job?"  
  
"It's a letter from the, ugh, school," Michelle called over her shoulder as she walked to the living room, "And my parents don't take care of them, they always forget. Well, my dad used to, but not anymore. Oh, and there's no truth to birds not eating much. Seriously, these birds make it look like they just survived a famine or something."  
  
"Whatever," Michael put his hands up, as if surrendering. He threw the twig he was holding out an open window and looked over Michelle's shoulder.  
  
"What's in the letter?"  
  
"It says...dododododo...hang on a min..." Michelle skimmed over most of the lines, and then said, "It says that we have to go register for our schedules and stuff...tomorrow. Or the day after. Or the first day of school."  
  
"Oh," Michael shrugged and flopped onto the leather couch, "When you goin'?"  
  
"I dunno. Probably day after tomorrow. Too lazy to go to school yet, a lot of people will be going tommorrow, and besides, I need extra time to find my first room for the day,"  
  
Michelle threw the letter onto the coffee table where her parents could see it, and added, "I'm not that familiar with Martingrove yet. You?"  
  
"I'll go with you," Michael grinned, "Your parents won't let you out of the house alone, remember?"  
  
"Oh. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I hope there won't be any problems since you're registed just a month before school started."  
  
"I personally do not care. High schools're supposed to be organized, so they'd better be prepared."  
  
Michelle smiled, as she switched on the family computer.  
  
"You sound like the typical rebel/bad boy type. Stay out of my face or die."  
  
"Well, you act like that sometimes too, don't forget," Michael countered as he got up and pulled up a chair beside hers.  
  
"Like when?" the girl asked as she impatiently waited for the computer to load.  
  
"Well, I've only been here a few weeks and haven't actually seen you like that...but when you walk down the street you do that thing girls do with the belt loops near the back...you know. Like sort of cowboy style, only your hands're behind you...sort of..."  
  
"Only Michael Bertrand would take the time to notice these things...like how close in proximity my hands are to my butt," Michelle murmured, just loud enough for Michael to barely hear.  
  
"Hey! How did you kno...er, what makes you think I'm looking at your butt?" Michael asked, trying to look as angelic as possible.  
  
Michelle grabbed the towel that was draped across the back of her chair, and whipped it at him, though not even glancing at him as she was staring at the computer screen.  
  
"Quit trying to look innocent. It definitely clashes with the baggy pants, black, loose t-shirt, and green bandanna you're wearing right now. I can't really imagine a gang member as the picture of innocence."  
  
Michael checked his clothes. She hadn't looked at him, but she had described him perfectly.  
  
"Do you normally memorize what people are wearing so that later on you can creep them out into thinking that you're psychic?"  
  
"What? I'm right?"  
  
She glanced at him.  
  
"Well whaddaya know," and soon added, "Finally. The computer's working."  
  
Michelle quickly typed in the password to sign onto the internet so that Michael couldn't see, and then sat back in her chair.  
  
"Lovely. Now we wait some more."  
  
"Why don't your parents get cable or high speed?"  
  
"Because either it costs too much, or it's un-necessary for my educational needs. But I disagree, considering that my homework will take longer to do if the internet sucks. I can't get information fast enough."  
  
"Fast enough for who? The teacher or you?"  
  
"Bit of both."  
  
Michael chuckled.  
  
"I can't wait to see you in your school with 80 minute long periods."  
  
"Twice as long as the middle school period," Michelle sighed, "At least I have lunch to look forward to. Speaking of which," Michelle got up and quickly walked downstairs to the kitchen, "I'm hungry."  
  
"Girl with a cute figure and a tight butt like that who loves to eat," Michael thought as he absently toyed with the mouse as the computer loaded, "Rar."  
  
"What?"  
  
Michael turned bright red. He'd realized that he'd growled out loud, and Michelle had silently come back with a bag of chips.  
  
"Eh, eh, nothing. I thought you were on your way downstairs?" Michael managed to mumble through.  
  
"I was, and then halfway down the stairs I realized I had a bag of chips in my room," Michelle explained.  
  
"What flavour?"  
  
"Regular."  
  
"Why do you never choose anything other than regular, or bacon?"  
  
"Why do you care? And move. You're in my chair."  
  
"Make me."  
  
Michelle gave him her sad eyes, which were extremely cute and did justice to her practicing in the mirror for five years.  
  
"Not fair, so not fair," the guy stated as he moved.  
  
"Whoever said the world was fair?" Michelle retorted as she began typing a storm after she stuffed a handful of chips into her mouth.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Sending a letter out, as not everyone is on MSN."  
  
"Everyone?"  
  
"As in the whole group you saw...two weeks ago. Scott's abusing his gifts, as well as his cuz. Um.as in his cuz is abusing his gifts. Scott isn't abusing his cousin. They were harrassing someone-"  
  
"-A whore," Michael cut in.  
  
"Someone," Michelle continued, "And Diana certainly doesn't have a gift, otherwise she'd have used them to protect herself."  
  
"But maybe she has something like Melissa's healing ability, and can't use it against anyone."  
  
"Nope, 'cuz if she did, then her wrist wouldn't have been sprained like that."  
  
"Wasn't it a minor sprain? Maybe she heals really slowly."  
  
"Actually, that sprain was pretty serious."  
  
"Why didn't you tell her?" Michael looked at her in shock. This seemingly caring girl, really being a total #%&@* with a flare for hurting people...  
  
"I knew that once she got home she would put on airs anyway, and complain that she was dying of the pain in her wrist. Eventually her parents would take her to the hospital, and she'd be taken care of. Seriously, that girl can be a brat sometimes."  
  
"Oh..."  
  
Michelle sent the letter, and then turned off the internet.  
  
"Now, when we go to register, we can expect everyone to come, save maybe one," Michelle said, thinking of Adam. 


	7. Registration for school, not mut...

"Lalalalala...no-one here...I'm bored...screw the mother@*$&ers...except the Sisterchip and witch...I mean Melissa who isn't really a witch..." Holly thought to herself.  
  
Holly was alone, leaning on a few lockers by the cafeteria at Martingrove. And she was bored, as no-one else that was supposed to come had showed up yet. Then she heard running, and turned to see what the noise was all about. Adam ran in, breathless, with Michael close to his heels, a metre ahead of Michelle, who was just before Phil and Geordie, with Melissa steadily jogging at the rear.  
  
"And the winner, is Ad...d@&*..."  
  
Adam would have gotten to Holly first, but he slowed down so as not to bump right into her, while Michael had sped right by, thus getting to her (and beyond) before Adam did.  
  
"SWEET! OH NO!" Michael cheered for himself, then ran straight into the cafeteria doors.  
  
WHAM!  
  
"Omi..."  
  
Michelle made a classic baseball slide so that she stopped right by Michael, who by now was sprawled on his back on the floor.  
  
"You okay?"  
  
"I win," answered Michael, before he winced, "With bruised ribs from running into the door handle as a prize."  
  
"Ouch," sympathised Phil.  
  
"Melissa, go and kiss it better!" Geordie suggested, as Michelle and Holly helped Michael into a sitting position.  
  
"Doesn't he have enough girls around for his attention?" Melissa quipped.  
  
"Hey, one more wouldn't hurt. What more would a guy ask for, right Mike?" grinned Adam.  
  
The Sisterchip posed as two flirty girls both trying to win over Michael as the one guy invited Melissa to join the club.  
  
"What I wouldn't give for a camera," Melissa said, and added, "I only need to see the bruise to heal it, not kiss it."  
  
"What if I gave you..." Geordie started.  
  
"No," chimed in everyone else.  
  
"Here, I'll lift up my shirt. Anything to get rid of this pain."  
  
"I'll look away then," said Phil as he turned.  
  
"And I will help look away," Adam said as he spinned.  
  
"And I'll join the club," said Geordie as he did just that.  
  
Michael lifted his shirt to reveal the purple bruise. But that wasn't the only thing that caught the girls' attention.  
  
"OH MY @*$&ING GOD!!!" Holly yelled.  
  
"D@&*!" Melissa agreed.  
  
"Well now...you still have that six-pack," Michelle said calmly, "But I didn't know you had an outie bellybutton."  
  
"You never asked," said Mike, "So girls, you like my tight abs?"  
  
"WHAT?!?"  
  
The three other boys turned.  
  
"S*#%!!" they all said.  
  
"Took about a year to get," Mike said proudly, "But I made it."  
  
"Watch Melissa contemplate actually kissing your bruise. Oh wait, it's gone," Holly said.  
  
"Yes! No pain! And I can put my shirt back down since it's cold in here and the teacher's coming."  
  
Michael jumped up, and Michelle said:  
  
"Melissa, Adam, Phil. Come on. We have to register. You too Mike. The rest of you, wait up."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Afterwards, the group walked over to John G., were they scattered over the Playscape.  
  
"So, Scott's and his cousin Matt are abusing their powers?" Melissa asked.  
  
"Pretty much," Mike answered.  
  
"Michelle, you get crushes on the worst people..." Holly shook her head.  
  
"Hang on a minute, what?" Adam exclaimed.  
  
"Yes, I had a crush on Scott in grade seven. Cut me some slack. One has to admit that he's really cute."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Geordie waved the subject off.  
  
"The point is, what can we do about this problem? If he abuses his power too much, will it necessarily need to be us that stops him and his cousin the Hulk?" Phil asked.  
  
"Ok, for one thing, Matt isn't the Incredible Hulk. The Hulk was slow, strictly a killing machine when he was angry, and green. Matt wasn't green," Adam turned to Michelle, "Right?"  
  
Michelle sighed, "Right."  
  
"Why the sigh? Hey, it rhymes!" asked Melissa.  
  
"If you only saw...wait."  
  
Michelle became a Vulcan, and put a hand on the side of Melissa and Holly's heads.  
  
"What?" Holly started.  
  
{Just concentrate,} Michelle said into their heads.  
  
She put into both their minds for a few moments, a picture of Matt's face.  
  
"Ooooooh..." Melissa whined, "But he's soooooo cute!"  
  
"Yeah...did you notice his eyes?" asked Holly.  
  
"Almost as blue as Elijah Wood's..." Michelle answered dreamily.  
  
"And his hair...oh my God...those dreads locks..." Holly added.  
  
"And he has such dark lips..." Melissa added.  
  
"Tell me about it," sighed Michelle.  
  
"Ugh," Adam shook his head.  
  
"Why're girls always so 'oo-y' and 'ah-y' over good-looking guys?" asked Phil.  
  
"Girls..." muttered Geordie.  
  
"Why're the dreamboats always against me?" wondered Michelle out loud.  
  
"Are you saying I'm not a dreamboat?!?!" said Mike and Adam at the same time.  
  
"Uh-oh, looks like the tables have turned Adam," Melissa said, smiling, "Now, it's you fighting for a girl, and not two girls fighting over you."  
  
"An unpleasant change, nonetheless," Adam said with mock sadness.  
  
"Whoa, Adam was fought over at one time?" Michael said, shocked.  
  
"Ok, back to the subject," yelled Phil, "We keep tabs on Matt and Scott during school and make sure they don't kill or decapitate anyone. Agreed?"  
  
"Sure," said Mike.  
  
"First dibs on first shift with Matt!" said Holly, raising her hand.  
  
"Hello? Not fair! I didn't know we were taking dibs! So I get to go first!" cried out Melissa.  
  
"Uh, no? I saw him first-"  
  
"In battle," pointed out Phil.  
  
"So? That doesn't mean that I lose my right with first dibs!"  
  
"Mike, let's drag her home so that she loses since she won't be here to argue," said Adam.  
  
"Ok!"  
  
"Hey! No! NO!! Put me down!! THIS IS NOT FAIR!! AAAA-mph!"  
  
Adam had snatched Mike's bandanna and stuffed it into Michelle's mouth.  
  
"Umph mgh gmph!!!"  
  
"Sorry, we didn't hear that," said Michael as he and Adam carried her off the Playscape and started walking home, Michelle struggling all the way.  
  
"Come on Holly, at least you get a chance with a guy," Phil said, "I mean, you've got Geordie. I say Melissa gets first dibs, then Holly gets her turn, and then we come back to Melissa again."  
  
Mike and Adam got a kick, as well as more protest from their awkward little bundle.  
  
"I second the motion!" agreed Melissa, raising her hand.  
  
"And I third it so to bill is passed," finished Geordie.  
  
The 'awkward little bundle' went limp at this, giving out a few pitiful whimpers.  
  
"Yes, Michelle, we know it's not fair," said Mike, "But you said yourself that life wasn't...ow! What'dja kick me in the head for?"  
  
Finally, Michelle was able to spit out the bandanna that was in her mouth.  
  
"Ok, fine. I forfeit my turn. Could you please put me down now?"  
  
"What's in it for us?" asked Adam.  
  
"I'll...give a hug to both of you once you put me down properly and say you're sorry?"  
  
Immediately, both the boys that were holding her up dropped her. She landed on her side but quickly transformed into a golden retriever, bounced up, and ran to climb up the stairs of the playground, and stood on the bridge.  
  
{That sooooo did not count! You dropped me!}  
  
"Aw, come on, Michelle!" yelled Adam.  
  
"Give us a hug anyway!" added Mike.  
  
{I didn't hear a sorry...} Michelle looked away.  
  
Mike became a golden retriever as he ran to her, and Adam fell on his knees, pleading.  
  
"We're really, really, truly, REALLY sorry Michelle!" said Adam from the ground.  
  
Michael was a bit more forward. Once he got to her, he knocked Michelle over gently, and began nuzzling her playfully.  
  
{Come on...} said Michael (letting everyone hear), in one of those voices you use when you play with babies, {You know we're sorry! Come on, 'Shell! Forgive us! You know you want to!}  
  
{No! Hahaha! Hey! No I don't! Hahahaha...stop! This is not a fair fight! Agh! That tickles! Haha...HELP! Hahahahahaha!}  
  
Geordie and Holly both jumped in and grabbed a dog each.  
  
"Who do I have?" asked Geordie.  
  
"The question is : who do I have!" said Holly.  
  
{Humus, put me down!} Michelle cried out.  
  
{No, put me down first! She owes me a hug, and if you let her go, I'm cheated out of a hug!} argued Mike.  
  
{I owe you nothing!}  
  
{Do too!}  
  
{Do not!}  
  
{Do!}  
  
{Not!} 


	8. Nighttime talk

"Hey Shell. You awake?" Michael yell-whispered. He'd tiptoed upstairs to Michelle's room.  
  
"Yeah," came a hushed reply. "Come on in." Mike slipped silently into Michelle's room and sat on her bed.  
  
"You still use a night-light?"  
  
"I turn it on when I know I'm not going to fall asleep right away, or if I want to think. Why're you up so late? I'ts 12:37."  
  
"I couldn't sleep," answered the boy.  
  
Michael looked at her sadly. Michelle sat up and patted part of the bed beside her.  
  
"Sit here and take some of the blanket. It's a bit cold. What're you thinking about?" she asked.  
  
Michael took his time getting comfortable, finally lying down on his side by Michelle with the blanket around him up to his neck.  
  
"Can't help but worry about whether my life's gonna repeat itself or not. That I don't blow it again. My parents put me here for a chance to start over, but I don't know if I'll make it."  
  
"Did you mean for it to happen before?"  
  
"Not really. Just wanted to be one of the popular kids. And somehow the largest crowd seemed to become the people that...did everything wrong."  
  
Michelle laughed softly, then sighed.  
  
"You've always been like this," she said, adjusting the blanket around her shoulders.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Giving up and losing hope before anything started."  
  
"What?!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Sh!!!"  
  
Both held their breaths for a moment, listening carefully. Silence. Mike let out a sigh of relief, and Michelle said, "Quiet down."  
  
"Ok, ok. What do you mean I've always been like this?"  
  
"Remember that video we saw from about seven years ago? At Beng's house?"  
  
"Yeah. The video that James kept complaining about since it was his birthday."  
  
"Heh...yeah. Remember the pinata part?"  
  
"I remember because I didn't hit the thing."  
  
"Neither did I."  
  
"So? You're a girl, and you're younger than me. Anyway, what's your point?"  
  
"You gave up early even then. And that affected how you acted later. I remember that it took your parents, my parents, Cherry, and my efforts to get you to try the game. While we were near the end of the line, you kept saying over and over that you-"  
  
"-couldn't hit the pinata, and after I said that I was sorry that I couldn't get you any candy. Until that other guy broke the pinata, then I got some for you since your parents mad you give your brother all of yours since he was crying."  
  
"You did...oh yeah...I remember James and his friends teased me later for having a boyfriend after that. How can you remember that?"  
  
"I remember a lot more things that would probably embarrass you."  
  
"Aww.you're so sweet...I didn't say that."  
  
Michelle felt her ears turning bright red, and quickly she buried herself entirely in her blanket.  
  
"And of course you, even though you keep hiding it, are still the shy one. Now get out of there."  
  
The blanket suddenly went slightly more limp, and Michael sat up and carefully tried to unfold the sheets, and found a cute little grey kitten in Michelle's place.  
  
"Lucky you. You can morph anything."  
  
The kitten got up and purred, rubbing against Michael's chest.  
  
{You're naturally cute. I have to turn into something.}  
  
"Oh, come on. That's not true."  
  
The kitten immediatly stopped, daintily stepped away from Mike, and purposefully turned its back to him.  
  
{Yes it is.} Michelle argued, shaking her tail at him.  
  
"Come back."  
  
{No.}  
  
Michael grabbed the kitten and rubbed his face into its fur gently.  
  
"Too bad. Your fur is so soft..."  
  
The kitten eventually managed to wriggle free after a moment, and curled up in Mike's lap, purring softly as he stroked her.  
  
{I really wish life were as simple as this. I don't care how ready my mom says I am. I don't want to go to high school.}  
  
"You'll have to. You know it."  
  
Michelle sighed.  
  
{Yes, I know,} she paused, {You know about the fact that they might register mutants now, right?}  
  
"Yeah. Get off, for a bit?"  
  
Michelle jumped off, and Mike became a grey kitten as well, and curled up beside her in a little 'cave' of blanket.  
  
{Senator Kelly from the USA is leading it all, it seems,} Mike added.  
  
{If that law is passed here in Canada, then we all would need to register. Then authorities may come, take us away, maybe all of the group might be separated...we'd almost never be allowed to see our family...be treated like dirt...both feared and hated for nothing that we ever did...}  
  
Michelle trembled a bit, and Mike twined his tail with hers, and she moved a little closer to him.  
  
{Hey, it's ok. Canada's a good place, the law may not be made. Besides, both of our parents are opposed, remember?}  
  
{Yeah, but I asked the group, and Melissa's parents, Adam's parents AND his dad's girlfriend, and Phil's family all agree with mutant registration.}  
  
{Since when did Adam's dad have a girlfriend?}  
  
{I don't know. Adam doesn't like to talk about it. All I know is that his parents are separated and that's all he says about it.}  
  
{Must be tough.}  
  
{Yeah,} she sighed, {Like I said, I wish life were always simple.}  
  
Eventually, both became tired of talking and fell asleep right where they were. 


	9. Our First Day of School or The Group of ...

To my dear reviewers:  
  
I'm really sorry, but instead of posting two chapters every other day, I'm afraid everything is going to slow down to something like one chapter every week or whatever, depending on the type of day I'm having. Sorry! I had a lot of chapters before, that were ready to be posted, so that's why everything was so fast. Esperwen  
  
"I hate school," Michelle grumbled.  
  
She and Michael were waiting at a bus stop. They would need to take the bus to school every day, unless Michelle's father could drive them. But that wasn't often. It was just 7:45am, and already Michelle was complaining about school.  
  
"You know I hate school?"  
  
"You've only mentioned it 18 times this morning already," answered Michael sleepily.  
  
Both had got out of bed at 6am, so that  
  
1: Michelle's dad could wish them luck;  
  
2: so that Michelle's mother could walk with them to the bus stop, even though she was taking the bus going the opposite way;  
  
3: so that they would be able to get to the school by 8am, and become familiar enough with the school so that they wouldn't get lost once school started.  
  
Michelle yawned and checked her watch again.  
  
"It is 7:47am."  
  
"And I should care because...?"  
  
"Because I'm tired and I hate school, and since you're the only one within hearing, I'm taking it all out on you."  
  
"How kind of you."  
  
"Of course, you don't care right now."  
  
"Of course I don't care. I have other things to think and worry about."  
  
"What do you have to be worried about? My parents are handling everything for you."  
  
"You know what I'm talking about."  
  
"About messing up?"  
  
Mike nodded. Michelle sighed and gave him a quick hug.  
  
"Mike, you'll be fine. Just avoid the crowds that you might have been in before."  
  
"Easy for you to say. Nothing like this has ever happened to you. You can't teach an old dog new tricks." "At least you didn't get addicted. And actually, it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. It just takes a bit longer."  
  
"Especially if the dog has no idea what trick you're trying to make it do."  
  
"Mike."  
  
"Ok, ok. I'll try to think about something else."  
  
Michelle yawned, and after a moment :  
  
"Did you know that I hate school?"  
  
"Where's Holly and Geor-oh yeah. They're going to ESA, aren't they?" asked Phil.  
  
"Congratulations! You are correct! You win absolutely nothing!" said Adam in a TV announcer.  
  
The group was in the main hallway of Martingrove, waiting for the grade nine assembly to start. Michael wasn't going to be in grade nine, as he was a year older than all of the others, but he still needed to go since he was new to the school.  
  
"What's ESA?" asked Michael.  
  
"The Etobicoke School of the Arts," replied Michelle, "Both of our friends, coincidentally, are majoring in drama, and their minors are.I think music. Holly for either flute or singing, and Geordie with his trombone. Am I right?"  
  
"I think so," answered Melissa.  
  
"What time is it now?" asked Phil, "Michelle?"  
  
"Um." Michelle consulted the watch that she always wore, "It's 8:10 am."  
  
Adam shook his head.  
  
"Why do you always wear a watch?"  
  
"Because I'm special."  
  
"Hey! Former Jags!"  
  
The circle of friends had all come from John G. Althouse, and the students from that school fondly called themselves "The Jags", which was short for the Jaguars, which was the school mascot. The group turned and saw two grade ten boys walking their way. One was fairly stocky, wearing the dark green vest that he always wore, the other was taller, with his head bending in an almost permanent stoop.  
  
"Kael! Gordon! Long time no see," called Melissa.  
  
"Hey guys," greeted Gordon, the taller boy.  
  
"Hellooooo," said Kael, "Hm.who is this? Does Adam have a rival?" he added, looking at Michael.  
  
"Hi, I'm Mike. I don't know about my being a rival; that's Michelle's choice. Anyway, we've been friends all her life. You are.?" Mike put his hand out to shake Kael's hand.  
  
"I'm Kael, and the ugly, tall one over there is Gordon. Don't kick me Gordon."  
  
Gordon snapped his fingers.  
  
"You've known Michelle all your life? I find that hard to believe," commented Gordon.  
  
"Not all MY life. I've known her all HER life. I've known her for all my life minus about a year."  
  
"Oh. Hm.you did not tell me this," said Melissa.  
  
"Yeah, Michelle. Have you been keeping secrets from us?" teased Adam.  
  
"I didn't tell because no-one asked," Michelle said calmly.  
  
"Oh, come on. What're that chances that someone will ask, 'Hey Michelle! How long have you known this guy?' eh?" said Phil.  
  
"Um.I won't comment, " said Michelle.  
  
"Oh wait." Phil thought a moment, "Yeah."  
  
"I guess nobody's changed very much, eh?" commented Kael.  
  
The younger part of the group gave each other knowing smiles.  
  
"Yes." said Adam, looking away.  
  
"None of us have changed very much (cough)," agreed Phil.  
  
Gordon looked as though he might say something, but then changed his mind. Not before Melissa noticed, though.  
  
"You guys wanna go outside?" asked Michael, "The assembly won't be until another fifteen minutes, and I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to stay in the school."  
  
"Fine by me."  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
The (now more diverse in ages) group stepped outside to the front of the school. Michelle couldn't help but comment about how weird it was that the front of the school faced all the neighbouring houses, and yet the back of the school was more accessible to the road and all the bus stops nearby. Even all the teachers came in by the back doors. This was perfect for all the high schoolers that smoked, because even though it was against school rules, they were able to smoke at the front of the school, where the teachers never set foot. So, the teachers couldn't jump onto their cases. And of course, about six teens around the neighbourhood of 17 were smoking calmly as usual by the front doors of the school.  
  
"Teachers here really do not care about the rules, do they?" asked Mike.  
  
"Nope," answered Kael, "Why would they? It's out lives that're getting screwed, not theirs. And once we graduate, they'll probably never need to hear about us ever again."  
  
"Unless we become rich and famous, but that isn't very likely, and if anyone would become rich and famous, it would be Geordie or Holly," said Melissa.  
  
"Yeah, that's (cough) true (cough, cough). If anyo-" Michelle couldn't continue; she was coughing too hard.  
  
When they came out, the people that were smoking were down-wind from Kael and all the rest. But while they had been talking, the wind had shifted ever so slightly, and cigarette smoke blew over to where Michelle and Mike were standing. Michael hadn't noticed, as he was used to cigarette smoke. Michelle, on the other hand.  
  
"Guys, (cough, cough) he-" Michelle broke off, and fell onto her knees, coughing hard.  
  
"Michelle?" Adam knelt down beside her, "Hello?"  
  
"Relax, she's probably faking," said Phil calmly.  
  
"Are you sure?" asked Gordon, "That looks pretty bad. Her eyes are tearing up."  
  
"Nah. What would've caused it?" said Kael.  
  
"Noth-the cigarette smoke." Michael finally realised the smell around him.  
  
"Oh no." Melissa's eyes widened, "I just remembered that cigarette smoked makes her cough really hard."  
  
Everyone stood still for a moment, and then Michael and Kael desperately began half-dragging, half-carrying Michelle into the school, away from the smokers. Even when they got her inside, it took her a few moments to get her bearings and breathe normally again.  
  
"What took you so long?" Michelle finally managed to gasp out.  
  
"You fake stuff like that too often," replied Phil, "And we didn't know you suddenly got asthma over the summer."  
  
"I don't have asthma. I just have this weird negative reaction thing with cigarette smoke. Some of my uncles smoke, but I'm not around them often enough to get used to it," said Michelle.  
  
"So now you tell us," said Gordon said rolling his eyes.  
  
"When did she ever fake this kind of thing?" asked Adam.  
  
"Good question. Question-tastic!" said Phil.  
  
"I defy the tastic!" Michelle interjected.  
  
"And I deny the tastic. Beaver-tastic!" added Melissa.  
  
"And I deny that too!" 


	10. The Grade 9 Sleepover

To my dear reviewers:  
  
Sorry for taking so long! I hope I meet everyone's expectations! Esperwen  
  
"Ok, ok! I'm going!" yelled Michael.  
  
"Yes!" cheered Michelle, "Thank you!" she added as she hugged him.  
  
"Why do you even want me to go? The sleepover is just for the niners, right?"  
  
"Not quite. It's for the NEWCOMERS, so that they feel welcome. As in, anyone who's new to the school can go. And you said you'd go, so you can't back out now. And I want you to go since Melissa's not going, and Adam doesn't wanna talk much anymore."  
  
Michael threw a pillow at Michelle, who promptly caught it and threw it back.  
  
"I'm only going because you threatened to never let me into your room again," Mike said, tossing the pillow back.  
  
"I can't believe you like my room that much," Michelle commented, throwing the pillow at Mike's head.  
  
"If I can't go into you room, I can't talk to you at night anymore," argued the boy.  
  
These two were born to argue with each other.  
  
"Then why don't you just tell me ahead of time that you want to talk?"  
  
"Because you may not want to talk, and if I come up, then you have to talk if you're not asleep."  
  
"What?"  
  
It was nearly two weeks past the beginning of school, and Martingrove was holding a sleepover for all the "new kids" in the school. Everyone had been doing well in school lately. Michelle and Adam were actually staying on top of their schoolwork. Mostly. Melissa had always done well, and Phil's teachers were actually ok with him. This was important, because during the last school year, Phil's grade 8 homeroom teacher was always against Phil for some reason. Well, she was actually against everyone in class (so Michelle and Melissa were included), but Mrs. Teirney had started yelling at Phil for no apparent reason when he walked into class on the last day of school. Holly and Geordie were battling for the top of their drama classes at ESA.  
  
"Who's gonna be going?" asked Mike.  
  
Michelle took a deep breath.  
  
"Adam."  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"That's it?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Ok.I guess I have to go then. Why won't Adam talk to you?"  
  
Michelle shrugged, "I don't know. Probably because I refuse to show signs of still 'like' liking him, and maybe even because of a humanoid substance that happens to always hang around me."  
  
"Are you saying I should just leave you alone while we're at school?"  
  
"No.I'm saying that you should find other friends around your age."  
  
"One year isn't that far."  
  
"Really?" Michelle raised an eyebrow  
  
"Um.ok fine. But its not like I have some old friends here that I can be reunited with."  
  
The group had come across a person who Phil, Adam, and Michelle all recognised from four years ago. Kevin Ryans was Michelle and Phil's classmates during grade three and four, and had met Adam in grade five when Adam had switched to their school, since Adam had become fast friends with Michelle. Then Michelle introduced Adam to Phil and Kevin (who was in the other grade five class). However, during the school year, Kevin had sworn at his teacher, and so was suspended for a day, and then had switched to another school. Then, in grade nine, Kevin had also registered for Martingrove, and the group was reunited. Now the circle of friends' Martingrove division was composed of eight people: Michelle Gilpo, Melissa Gregoire, Philip Miles, Adam Mogyorodi, Michael Bertrand, Kevin Ryans, Kael Watt and Gordon Lacy.  
  
"True," Michelle sighed, "Our group is huge now. In grade three, there was just Kevin, Phil and I. Then Adam came along in grade five, but Kevin left. Then Melissa showed up in grade six, and Kael started bothering us. Then we met Gordon in grade seven. And then the group was reduced to Adam, Phil, Melissa and I since Kael and Gordon graduated a year before us. Then."  
  
".Look at us now! The group is huge!" Mike finished with mock ecstasy.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Michelle chewed on her pizza slowly. The others had either not come yet, or were still in line, collecting their pizza that the school was providing for 'dinner'. Michael had for some reason been slow when registering, maybe because the people there hadn't heard his last name right, and Adam hadn't come yet. Finally, Mike pulled a chair up by Michelle with his pizza and Coke.  
  
"Finally," Mike said under his breath.  
  
"You seem perky."  
  
"Diana was one of the people that was giving out pizza."  
  
Michelle grinned.  
  
"How is she? I haven't seen her since that day we had the group meeting. Oh, and how's her wrist?"  
  
"She seems fine! Her arm for some reason is still in a sling, even though it's been about a month, but she's fine! Happy! Slutty! A true ho-" Mike stopped himself, realising that his voice tone was going up, and hoped that most people hadn't noticed him.  
  
"Yeah, that's her," Michelle said calmly, biting into her pizza and silently laughing.  
  
"How are you friends with her?" Mike whined.  
  
"We're not close friends. We're just two people on friendly terms. In other words, if someone bad-mouths me behind my back, then she'll find out, tell me about it, as well as maybe spread around something about the person that started the rumour. And if someone says something about her to me, then I'll set the person straight, tell Diana about it, then talk to the person that started that."  
  
"In other words, you make sure that bad rumours about each other don't get out of hand."  
  
"Yeah. Hey look, there's Adam."  
  
"Good for you."  
  
"Come again?"  
  
"He hasn't been entirely kind to me lately. When I pick up the phone when he calls to talk to you, he has this really cold tone of voice. He-"  
  
"-Thinks you've been replacing him as my closest friend."  
  
"Well.sort of. Hey, how did you know?"  
  
"Last time he called me, he said that. Adam was the closest guy friend that I could talk to. And he feels he's being replaced since you're here now."  
  
"Oh.I was thinking more along the lines of.anyway, he's got his pizza and coming here."  
  
"Hey Michelle. Mike," Adam greeted as he walked up. He pulled up a chair at the opposite side of Michelle that Mike was sitting.  
  
"Hi Adam," said Michelle.  
  
"Hi."  
  
Suddenly, Mike was deeply interested in the details of the pepperoni on his pizza.  
  
"What's with Diana?" asked Adam, "She seemed distracted."  
  
"Oh, and you never explained to me how she knew a lot of Michaels," added Mike.  
  
"Ok, Diana is really absorbed with her new hobby 'Capture Mike Bertrand's heart,' and."  
  
Adam choked on a bit of his pizza and Mike scowled at this point.  
  
"And," Michelle continued, "Mike brushed off Diana yet again."  
  
"If not literally," muttered the emotionally scarred teen.  
  
"So Diana's trying to cook up some other plan."  
  
"I thought Diana said she'd changed?" asked Adam, hiding his smiles.  
  
"Sure doesn't seem that way. Oh, and Diana used to 'date' this guy also named Michael, who also really didn't like her and she knew it. But Diana spread rumours that they were 'together' anyway."  
  
Michael studied his half-eaten slice of pizza, his appetite suddenly gone.  
  
"Is she spreading rumours about me and.HER yet?"  
  
"Not that I know of."  
  
"No," answered Adam, "So she's really intent to actually get you to like her for real, considering how here rep got tainted with the last guy."  
  
"Goody."  
  
Michelle threw out her crust, and looked up as a teacher started yelling orders to go into the gym.  
  
"Guess it's time to go. Come on guys!"  
  
Michael didn't need to spend most of his time at the sleepover worrying about Diana, as she was put into one group for the games and he in the other. He and Adam ended up in one group, and Michelle and Diana in the other. The sleepover wasn't that bad, even Michael had to admit. The games were really weird, really 'creative' games that one of the Martingrove seniors, David Chow, had cooked up either overnight, or over his years at Martingrove. Amazingly, the games were actually really fun (so long as you weren't totally zonked out, which all three of our dear friends were not). And during square dancing lessons that the seniors who were helping out gave, there were no problems as the trio was all separated. Finally, there was free time from 10 o'clock on, with the gym being divided into three gyms using huge retractable walls. One was for the girls 'dorm' at one side, the boys 'dorm' at the other, and a brightly lit 'activity room' in the centre room for anyone who wanted to stay up a while longer. Michelle, Adam and Michael all sat on the folded up bleachers that came out whenever there was a game or pep rally in the gym.  
  
"So." started Michelle, trying to break the silence around the three teens.  
  
"Well." added Mike.  
  
"Nice.day?" continued Adam.  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"So." started Michelle.  
  
"Well." added Mike.  
  
"Nice.day?" continued Adam.  
  
There was an even longer pause.  
  
"So." started Michelle.  
  
"We need therapy," added Mike.  
  
"Nice.hang on a minute.that's not what you're supposed to say!" exclaimed Adam.  
  
"It started with a 'w' and an 'e'," argued Mike.  
  
There was yet another long pause.  
  
"So." Michelle shook her head, "Ok, this is pathetic."  
  
Mike sighed.  
  
"Yeah," agreed Adam.  
  
"MICHELLE!!!!"  
  
The elite sleepover division of the group jumped when a new, high voice entered their heads. Michael groaned out loud.  
  
"Hi Diana," waved Michelle.  
  
"Michelle, why did.oh," Diana's voice changed from a shrill pitch to what she considered seductive, but what at least two Michaels in the world considered disgusting.  
  
"Hi Michael. Fancy meeting you here."  
  
"You were the one that gave me two slices of pizza, as well as made a pass on me just a few hours ago," said Michael coldly.  
  
But Diana didn't hear.  
  
"Michelle," Diana's voice when shrill again, "How could you have told me that my sprain was mild?! When I got home (just about fainting from pain), my parents told me it was quite major! You, of all people, who aspires to be a nurse! I had to be rushed to the hospital because of you!"  
  
Michelle merely ignored her, jumped down from the bleachers and walked toward the girls' dorm. But Diana wasn't done with her.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Diana grabbed Michelle's shoulder, gripping hard, with the SAME HAND THAT WAS IN A SLING! Michelle grabbed the hand on her shoulder, pried it off, let it drop, and then turned around.  
  
"Oh! How wonderful, Diana! Your arm is better now!" said Michelle cheerily, but not without some hidden venom.  
  
"Um.eh-he.yeah! Um.very good.I just remembered something." and with that  
  
Diana was gone.  
  
Both Adam and Michael chuckled.  
  
"Well, she can't fake pain in her arm now," Adam said.  
  
"I'll say," winced Michelle as she felt her shoulder. Her fingers found small cuts where Diana's nails had dug in.  
  
"Anyway, I'm going to get a drink," declared Michelle.  
  
"I saw the other Adam and Nikola earlier. I'm gonna hang around them for a bit," Adam said, and took off towards the boys' dorm.  
  
"Wait up. I'm getting a drink too, just as soon as I tie up my shoe," said Mike.  
  
"Ok, I'll walk ahead."  
  
Michelle walked through the girls' dorm, and into the hallway. No-one noticed her, as she had practised stealth walking to perfection. Michael tied his shoelace and jogged to the hallway to meet her. But she wasn't there. Michael walked up and down the hallway nearest the gym, looking down the ways that Michelle could have turned and walked through. No Michelle. Then, he heard something like a dog whimpering. Or a person's voice being muffled.  
  
"Michelle?!"  
  
The sound was coming from one of the further hallways, opposite the drinking fountains, near the cafeteria.  
  
"Oh, s&#*.Michelle!"  
  
Mike ran down to the hall near the cafeteria, and barely glimpsed Michelle being dragged down the hallway, struggling, near the stairwell to the school's second level. He could hear Michelle's muffled voice, and the sound of lockers being banged as she tried to be set loose.  
  
Then he heard her scream. 


	11. On the Internet

During that same Friday afternoon, Melissa sat in front of her computer, typing up the finishing touches of homework that was due the next week, as she had finished all her other work. Phil was at his computer too, but not doing homework. He was searching for pictures of Anime characters drawn as cats. He called then 'Anime Kitties.' Melissa had cable Internet, so she signed into MSN as soon as she finished her homework, and then resumed her story "Crimson Ashes" that she had started for Fiction Press. Phil saw, and started a conversation with Melissa.  
  
"Hi," typed in Phil as 'The knowledge you exist is a burden to my soul.'  
  
"Hello," typed Melissa s 'If life gives you lemons, then shove them down someone else's throat.'  
  
"You busy?" typed Phil.  
  
"Nope. I finished my homework," typed Melissa.  
  
"Next week's homework or next year's?" typed Phil. He pointed accusingly at the computer monitor and exclaimed aloud "Burn!"  
  
Melissa didn't type an answer.  
  
"How do they know.?" she murmured to herself.  
  
"Any news about Scott or Matt?" typed Phil after about ten minutes of chat- room silence.  
  
"Nothing except what everyone knows. Matt is just the average 13-year-old guy that easily blends in with the crowd, and Scott is running for grade 9 representative. Oh, actually, I know one new thing. Michelle told me that Matt has a girlfriend. Someone named Hannah."  
  
Phil rolled his eyes and let his head fall onto his keyboard.  
  
"fjlkso sxfjxoief koOIF FKOIDSH;SUHYO," typed in Phil's forehead.  
  
"You wanted something more relevant?"  
  
"YES, IN FAC.yes, in fact I did. Stupid caps lock."  
  
"Why Phil? You jealous?"  
  
"Kind of, hey how about no."  
  
Melissa thought a moment before typing, "Hey! Michelle and I could arrange your life for you! We could figure out all the stuff that is wrong.eh.we could help and multiply all the strong points you have. Not that 1 is a very good start. But hey, we're all friends!"  
  
"You must be joking. Are you feeling all right?"  
  
"Funny. Anyway, we'll start with your hair. Seriously, Phil, you need to wash you hair more often. After all, once every two weeks isn't enough."  
  
"Hey! As a matter of fact I do wash my hair more often than every two weeks."  
  
Melissa's keyboard just went 'click, click, click' while her brain whirred into overtime.  
  
"We need to get you a girlfriend."  
  
"NO!"  
  
"Yeah! What's your type? Blonde, brunette, red-head?"  
  
"NO!"  
  
"Tall? Short? Same height as you?"  
  
"NOO!"  
  
"Skinny, not quite so, what's your dream girl Phil?"  
  
Phil screamed aloud (long and hard) at his home before typing,  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO!!!"  
  
Melissa was giggling non-stop at her computer.  
  
"Stop spamming me, Phil."  
  
":@:@:@:@:@:@"  
  
"What is something I said?"  
  
Phil felt his left eye start twitching.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"  
  
Melissa fell of her chair, laughing.  
  
"Ok, I'll surprise you with someone."  
  
"Oh, goody," Phil typed after seriously contemplating smashing the computer monitor with his head.  
  
Melissa grinned. She loved doing this kind of thing to her friend.  
  
"But back to more serious news. What do you think would happen if Scott became grade 9 rep?" Melissa typed.  
  
"Party?"  
  
"Phil."  
  
"Atomic bomb threats and land mines everywhere on the football field?"  
  
"Get you mind out of the gutter Phil."  
  
"I AM A GUTTER!"  
  
"Very good. I'm sure you're proud."  
  
"D#$& straight. Anyway, Scott ran for school premier in grade 8, remember?"  
  
"Yeah, and he didn't get it. Instead, they let him be chairperson of the sports portfolio."  
  
"Yep. And he didn't screw that up. Everything went rather well. Better games in school than last year."  
  
"True, except for the extracurricular girls' volleyball team. You know the teams just for fun? He totally blew posting the teams."  
  
"Sure, but that's just about it."  
  
"What do you think the worst thing he could do is?"  
  
"Probably use his power to track down the two German Shepherds that attacked him as his gang (or family), and protected Diana."  
  
"Michelle and Mike," both of them said to themselves quietly.  
  
"Did you see that he hasn't even so much as looked at Diana since the beginning of the school year?" typed Melissa.  
  
"I didn't see, but I heard from rumours. I thought Diana was just spreading something around."  
  
"Well, it's true. After music once, Michelle and I saw that Scott was studying the wall opposite Diana when they walked by each other. He probably doesn't want to be bothered by her friends again."  
  
"Yeah, but he most likely wants to know who did it if they were mutants, or who sicked the dogs on him," typed Phil thoughtfully.  
  
"Well, at least Diana has no problems with Scott. But what will he do now? And will things stay like that?" typed Melissa.  
  
"We really can't know."  
  
Windows popped up at one side of both of the teens' computer screens.  
  
"Holly signed in," typed Melissa."  
  
"And Geordie," added Phil.  
  
"I'm adding them."  
  
Holly and Geordie were added to the conversation.  
  
"Hi!" typed Holly as 'Who has my shoes? (Looks down) Ah-ha.'  
  
"You will die three deaths. Except for Holly, with just two," typed Geordie as 'All bow to the Wheel of Time series! All hail!'  
  
"Any new news?" typed Holly.  
  
"Just that Matt has a girlfriend," Phil typed, then immediately braced himself.  
  
Holly gasped at her home, and one of her dogs wondered what the glowing box could have done to make her emit that funny sound.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO!!!" typed Holly.  
  
"This looks familiar," thought Phil and Melissa.  
  
"Sweet.I mean, oh no. How terrible," typed Geordie.  
  
"How.who.why.(sobs uncontrollably)" typed Holly.  
  
"Her name is Hannah, I think," typed Melissa.  
  
"Hannah is the most beautiful name there is," thought Geordie to himself, "Looks like I don't have anymore competition."  
  
"Hannah is the most disgusting name there is," typed Holly, "Looks like I've got some competition."  
  
"I thought the MG's were your competition?" typed Phil.  
  
"Nutmeg and Melissa? No," typed Holly, and then added, "What do you think is the more subtle approach to killing someone quickly, with the least amount of evidence to clean up?"  
  
"Hm.give us a moment." typed Melissa.  
  
"Oh, I should be fully prepared with an answer," typed Phil.  
  
"That is just the wimpiest way to get rid of competition," typed Geordie.  
  
"Well, what do you propose I do?" typed Holly.  
  
"Marry me," typed Geordie.  
  
Melissa and Phil couldn't help but laugh out loud in their homes. This was so typical of Geordie.  
  
"I'm sorry, I'm rather young to deal with that right now," typed Holly. She made a mental note to throw something at Geordie's head on Monday.  
  
"D#$&.so close," typed Geordie.  
  
"(throws a baseball at Geordie's head)" typed Holly.  
  
"(ducks the ball)" typed Geordie.  
  
"(gets hit by the ball in the head)" typed Phil.  
  
"Oops." typed Holly.  
  
"Chocolate tissues." typed Phil.  
  
"Well that was smart!" typed Geordie.  
  
"Me walkin' on da wata." typed Phil.  
  
"Holly! You have worse aim than I do. And that's saying a lot," typed Melissa.  
  
"Look at the purple bunnies." typed Phil.  
  
"I don't get it, my aim's usually so much better outside of gym," typed Holly.  
  
"Michael Finnigan." typed Phil.  
  
"Great." typed Geordie.  
  
"Oh, I forgot to tell you that Scott's running for grade 9 rep," typed Melissa.  
  
"Java Joe Millionaire." typed Phil.  
  
"The outlook of the German Shepherds' true identities staying secret seems very bleak now," typed Holly.  
  
"Are Michelle and Mike dating yet?"  
  
"Anime Osama." typed Phil.  
  
"Michelle's not allowed to date, right?" typed Holly.  
  
"No, they are not dating, and yes, Michelle is not allowed to date," typed Melissa.  
  
"PikaChar." typed Phil.  
  
"Phil, cut it out," typed Holly.  
  
"That could be taken wrong," typed Geordie.  
  
"Fine. So long as Geordie gets serious," typed Phil.  
  
"Geordie, what did that last question have to do with anything?" typed Melissa.  
  
"They're the German Shepherds' identities. Sorry, just wanted to know," typed Geordie.  
  
Holly and Melissa groaned. Geordie was always this distracted. Phil was the only one there that didn't mind Geordie's habits.  
  
"I just remembered something," typed Holly.  
  
"I just remembered something," typed Geordie at the same time.  
  
"What is it, and what is it?" typed Melissa.  
  
"What, what?" typed Phil.  
  
At first, neither Holly nor Geordie typed.  
  
"Just tell them, Holly," typed Geordie.  
  
"K, around three days ago, right after school, Geordie and I saw Scott around ESA, with a bundle. It was a brown sack, I think. Anyway, Geordie and I followed him as he walked a couple blocks, and eventually he came to a small house with one of those diamond fence things. You know, like around the nature preserve?" typed Holly.  
  
"He walked straight to the back door, knocked, and I think that Matt opened the door. Holly and me would've watched longer, but while we were walking, Scott had looked over his shoulder a couple times. And once he came to the house, he started walking backwards, so Holly and I had to hide behind a hedge, so we couldn't see much," typed Geordie.  
  
"And I remember that Scott handed the sack to Matt, and when he did, it moved a bit. On its own. Something was in the sack," typed Holly.  
  
"That sounds weird. I don't remember Scott ever doing anything like that before. We should check out what's happening there," typed Phil.  
  
"But we don't know what's in the sack," typed Melissa, "They could be handling a surprise birthday party or something, and the thing in the sack could be the rabbit for the magician's act or something. Or even the person's gift."  
  
"That's true." typed Phil.  
  
"But that's not all," typed Geordie.  
  
"Why? What else happened?" typed Melissa.  
  
"Scott went back every day, ever since then. Even today," typed Holly.  
  
"With a bundle every time?" typed Melissa.  
  
"Yes. Every time," typed Geordie.  
  
There was a pause of MSN silence.  
  
"What did Scott do once he gave the bundle?" typed Phil.  
  
"I think he followed Matt into the house. Oo.what're they doing.?" typed Geordie.  
  
"Except for today," typed Holly, "Scott went right back home. Or so we think."  
  
"Probably to get ready for the sleepover," typed Melissa.  
  
"I guess this means we up our vigilance in spying on those two," typed Phil.  
  
"Adam, Mike and Michelle are at the sleepover, aren't they?" typed Holly.  
  
"I hope they're ok," typed Melissa.  
  
"Let's just hope that Matt and Scott don't know who the German Shepherds really are," typed Phil.  
  
"Fine," typed Melissa.  
  
"Right," typed Holly.  
  
"I can't help but want to know what Scott takes to Matt's house," typed Holly.  
  
"Assuming it's Matt's house," typed Melissa.  
  
"Too bad none of us can go invisible," typed Geordie.  
  
"Michelle sort of can. She can be the wind," typed Holly.  
  
"Scott and Matt will probably get suspicious is their home suddenly gets very draughty," typed Melissa.  
  
"But they don't know that it's a person as the wind," typed Phil.  
  
"They're mutants. Don't get cocky. Why wouldn't they suspect others of having mutations too?" typed Melissa.  
  
"Because they're not Gifties. They're not in a special program for being supersmart like us," typed Phil.  
  
"Neither am I, and I'm smarter than both the boys here," typed Holly.  
  
"Sucker. Which could also be taken wrong," typed Geordie.  
  
"Knowledge and wisdom are two very different things," typed Melissa.  
  
"Too bad we don't know what are in those Bags. Michelle and Mike could morph into whatever they are," typed Holly.  
  
"If they were animals at all. Something inside could have fallen, causing the bag to move as the weight in the bag shifted," typed Melissa.  
  
"Little punching and kicking type of movements? Oo.more stuff that is very wrong," typed Geordie.  
  
"All I'm saying is that we shouldn't jump to conclusions. For all we know, we could be panicking over a surprise birthday party," typed Melissa.  
  
"I'm not panicked," typed Holly.  
  
"We're just curious. Hm.should I say it?" typed Geordie.  
  
"Don't even hint that what you just said was wrong," typed Phil.  
  
Melissa heard a pouf to her left. She turned, and saw that Phil had teleported to her room.  
  
"AAAGH! How did you.?!" Melissa took a deep breath, then said, "You're abusing your power, you know."  
  
Quickly, Melissa typed into her computer; "Phil is at my house!"  
  
"What?" typed Holly.  
  
"Is there something we don't know about?" typed Geordie.  
  
"Shut up Geordie. And Ow!" typed Melissa.  
  
Phil was poking her back. Hard.  
  
"Down with thy reasonable-and-wiseness!" Phil said out loud.  
  
"It's a good thing my parent don't hear anything in my room when the door's closed, and they're watching TV downstairs. Otherwise, things could get very complicated. And stop poking me," Melissa told Phil.  
  
"Neva!" Phil said stubbornly.  
  
Quickly, with the agility that she wished could come to her during PE, Melissa snatched a bottle of perfume that her mother had handily left on her computer desk.  
  
"Stay back, or I poke you in the gut and spray you with." Melissa glanced at the perfume label, ".with peach and apricot goodness!"  
  
"Neva!" Phil said yet again, followed by, "you wouldn't dare.!"  
  
"Yes I would!"  
  
Two of Melissa's fingers moved in synchronised grace as her left hand moved in a stabbing motion, while her right hand's index finger bent to push what would soon trigger the coming of a pleasant aroma of two blended fruits. (Too dramatic for ya? Live with it.) But just when Melissa's finger poked Phil, the thirteen-year-old teleported to the other side of the room. However.  
  
"Help!"  
  
Melissa was still in a sitting position. But she wasn't in her chair anymore. She had teleported with Phil to the other side of the room! And considering that the chair didn't teleport with them.  
  
(THUD!)  
  
"Ow! Phil!"  
  
"It's not my fault you fell! I didn't know you were going to teleport with me! Hey.my gift is sharable! I'm gonna test it on Geordie. Bye."  
  
And pouf, Phil was gone.  
  
"Melissa!" came a voice from downstairs.  
  
"Um, yeah mom?" Melissa called.  
  
"What was that thud I heard?"  
  
"I fell out of my chair."  
  
"Oh. All right. Shouldn't you be asleep? It's past midnight!"  
  
"Homework!"  
  
Melissa got up, brushed herself off and went back to her computer. Geordie had typed up all the innuendoes he could think of over a guy going to a girl's house and not telling anyone why or what he was doing. Holly had typed "What?!" "Huh?" "What's happening?" and "WHAZZZUUUU?" several times.  
  
"Phil went over to my house to poke me for being wise. And apparently his teleportation gift is sharable. He's testing it on Geordie right now," typed Melissa.  
  
"Where'd he poke you?" typed Geordie  
  
"Shut up Geordie. Hope it works," typed Holly.  
  
"It isn't working," typed Geordie.  
  
"It's not?" typed Holly.  
  
"No, it isn't. He's going over to Holly's place now. Good thing too. My brother almost walked in while Phil was here," typed Geordie.  
  
"It doesn't work with me either," typed Holly after a moment.  
  
"So it only works with me?" typed Melissa.  
  
"Looks that way," typed Geordie.  
  
"Phil has an idea," typed Holly.  
  
"What?" typed Melissa.  
  
"Maybe that's part of your mutation. Conducting other people's mutations. Maybe when people come in contact with you, their mutation is shared to you, as well as anyone else you're touching," typed Holly.  
  
"Touching.hm." typed Geordie.  
  
"Phil's going over to your place, take you to my place, (which conveniently has no parents or sisters around) and then we'll see," typed Holly.  
  
"KK," typed Melissa.  
  
Within a minute, a small party was assembled in Holly's family's study room. At last moment, Phil collected Geordie too. After a few arguments and some necessary restraint on Geordie's part, Holly held Melissa's right hand, Phil took Melissa's left, and Geordie put his hand on Melissa's head. Melissa began to call the shots.  
  
"Ok, Phil, try to teleport us to the other side of the room. And Geordie, don't lean on my head like that. I don't want to obtain scoliosis and grow and get a crooked spine because of you."  
  
Phil concentrated. Teleporting more than two people will begin to form a strain on a person's mind.  
  
(Pouf!)  
  
"Wow.that feel's tingly," said Melissa.  
  
"Hey! We're on the couch! Neat!" said Holly.  
  
"Eh-he, no. You three are on the couch. I am on the wall. And I'm gonna fall so you'd better mover over quick.!"  
  
Geordie fell onto the floor.  
  
"*mutterouchgroangrumble*" went Geordie, still face-first in the rug.  
  
"Ok, Geordie, come on. We'll need you here," said Holly.  
  
Geordie sulkily got up and put his hand on Melissa's head yet again.  
  
"I christen thee.anyway." said Geordie.  
  
"So, we can all see the big windows, right? Phil, think about making in snow on that rock over there," ordered Melissa.  
  
Phil visualised the rock being snowed on, and it was so.  
  
"Geordie, make the wind pick up those leaves over there and move them in a westerly direction."  
  
"Which way is west?"  
  
"Good question. Um.just blow them to the left."  
  
"To your left, or that tree's left?"  
  
"Just do it Geordie."  
  
Several brown leaves blew easily to Melissa's left. Moments later, they moved back to the right.  
  
"That was me. So far so good. Now, just to save some time, everyone except Geordie freeze a glass of water over on that table."  
  
"So that's why you ordered water for everyone but Geordie." Holly said.  
  
Swiftly, three frost trails floated over to the glasses from the teens' left-hand palms. Geordie's frost trail on that day had been icy blue, almost white. Holly's trail, however, had a pink-ish tinge, Phil's had a green tinge, and Melissa's had a deep blue colour.  
  
"Wow," commented Phil.  
  
"Who knew?" said Holly.  
  
"I wonder what Adam, Michael, and Michelle's colours would be," thought Melissa aloud.  
  
"What about your fire. Mine was sheer blood-red," said Geordie.  
  
"I have a fireplace. We'll try on that, but Geordie, you have to temper your ice so that it melts over the fire and puts it out. Ok?" asked Holly.  
  
"Clear as mud," replied Geordie.  
  
"That'll do," said Holly.  
  
On the fire, Phil's was green fire, Melissa's fire was blue, and hurt to look at, being to bright, while Holly had an orange flame.  
  
"That is so neat," said Melissa.  
  
"Different colours for different people," said Geordie as he put the fire out.  
  
"I wonder how Mike, Adam and Michelle are doing?" wondered Holly aloud. She glanced at the clock, "Oh boy. It's 1:15 am. Where're my parents?"  
  
"Great. Phil, you have to get me home. And Geordie too."  
  
(POUF!) 


	12. A New Discovery and a Close Cal...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"  
  
Michael sprinted around the corner, and yelled, "Let her go you.Gordon.?!"  
  
Mike froze and let his jaw drop. GORDON was who had dragged Michelle through the hallways. Michelle wasn't about to stare just yet.  
  
"What the.what is the matter with you?!" Michelle shrieked. She kicked and punched Gordon's stomach and knees relentlessly, screaming, "You scared me half to death! Why didn't you tap me on the shoulder like any other normal person?! Oh, wait. But you're NOT a normal person! You're a humanoid- type of alien slug that I happen to know! Why didn't you tell any of us that you'd be here?! And." Michelle blinked, stopped her attack, then asked, "You have a mutation too?"  
  
By the time Michelle had called Gordon an alien slug, Mike had recovered his powers of speech. But.Gordon had a mutation? Mike barely said, "Wha.?" before his jaw dropped yet again.  
  
"Whaddaya mean, 'too'?" Gordon asked, "What is this 'too' you speak of. Wait, you have a mutation?"  
  
"Answer me first! Your mutation is invisibility, isn't it?" said Michelle accusingly.  
  
"Well, partly. You have a gift?" asked Gordon.  
  
"Yeah. I can morph. So can Mike, but he's got limits to it. I don't. Wait, invisibility is only partly your gift?"  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Mike, who finally got his jaw to work properly again.  
  
"I.don't just go invisible. Heat sensors don't find me while invisible, because for some reason I stop giving off heat. And I can walk on the walls and ceiling," explained Gordon.  
  
"How did you find out about your mutation?" asked Michelle, "I mean, did you just think, 'I'm gonna climb up this wall right here, and be totally invisible too,' or what?"  
  
"Well, I was playing hide-and-seek with some of my family, and I couldn't find a spot, so."  
  
"You're kidding," said Mike, "You have to be kidding."  
  
"Tell me you didn't just think, 'I hope they don't see me' and then go invisible," said Michelle, shaking her head, "No."  
  
"No, seriously. I wished really badly that my cousin wouldn't see me, and she didn't. I wondered why, then I looked at myself.well.I couldn't see myself. I ran to a mirror, and didn't see anything. Everything behind me wasn't even skewed to betray whether or not I was there. I realised I was invisible."  
  
"What about walking on the wall?" asked Michelle. "And please don't tell us that you just wished really badly to walk up the wall, and then it happened," requested Mike.  
  
"Well, be glad because I won't. I'm sure at least one of you have jumped to see whether or not they were tall enough or could jump high enough to touch something, or the ceiling, right?"  
  
"Yeah." said Michelle, than after a moment, "No."  
  
"You didn't.jump and then get stuck.you didn't," said Mike.  
  
"Actually.ok, you asked me," said Gordon.  
  
Michelle and Mike burst out laughing.  
  
"You.got stuck? On what?" said Michelle, who was still giggling.  
  
"The ceiling. I got confused for a moment, then.yeah. I realised I could walk on walls and ceilings. Ok, Mike could you stop laughing at me?"  
  
"I can't help it! I can just imagine." Mike went into a peal of laughter yet again.  
  
"I hope no one was around to see you," said Michelle, trying to hide a smile, then finally giving up and laughing out loud.  
  
"Well, no. No one was around. I was at home in my basement, and no one saw me until I was down again," said Gordon, "Oh, and I climb with my feet too, but I need to take my shoes and socks off first."  
  
"You need to go barefoot?" asked Mike, who had calmed down.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That's great," said Michelle, "Just warn us whenever your shoes need to come off, for health reasons, ok?"  
  
"Hang on." Mike strained his ears, then whispered urgently, "Teacher's in the next hallway!"  
  
"S*#&.we're not supposed to be in the hallways," said Gordon.  
  
"Gordon, does anything behind you, or that you hold go invisible?" asked Michelle.  
  
"No. Otherwise, the people I walk by would look weird," replied Gordon.  
  
"Ok.Gordon, take your shoes and socks off, put your shoes in your so.I mean your socks in your shoes, and hide them by that garbage can there. Quick!" yell-whispered Michelle.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Just do it," advised Mike, then turned to Michelle and asked, "What morphs do we have will work? Or will I."  
  
"Acquire," said Michelle. There was a shimmer around her, and then.  
  
"Oh ugh!" exclaimed Gordon.  
  
"Madagascar hissing cockroach. Never watch 'Fear Factor'? Anyhow, Mike you have to acquire me. I chose this because at least we can bite back, and scare people away a little faster," explained Michelle, "Hurry!"  
  
Mike carefully picked up Michelle as the cockroach.  
  
"That is so weird.and creepy," commented Gordon, "Now what do I do?"  
  
"Climb up the wall and go invisible so the teach doesn't see you maybe?" suggested Mike.  
  
"Climbing."  
  
Gordon went up the wall, mimicking Tobey Maguire's idea of how Spiderman would climb walls. Michelle and Mike couldn't help but notice the terrible contrast between how different the two wall-climbers looked. As soon as Gordon was on the ceiling above a few lockers, he simply vanished from sight. Mike put Michelle down by the garbage can where Gordon's shoes were stashed, and hurriedly transformed into a cockroach himself.  
  
{Come on! Run over here!} rushed Michelle.  
  
{I'm coming! I'm coming!} answered Mike, whirring his little cockroach legs.  
  
Just as Mike disappeared behind the trashcan, the boys' gym teacher, Mr. Mulford, walked into the hallway. All three mutants held their breaths.  
  
"Hm.lights are still on in this hallway. They shouldn't be. Darn grade 10 helpers."  
  
The tall man flicked the lights off, and would have hit his head on Gordon had the latter not sped across the ceiling, away from the teacher's mop- covered head. The teens waited until Mr. Mulford's footsteps faded away, before breathing normally again. Gordon let himself fall from the ceiling, and become visible again. "That's too close. And it's too dark here."  
  
{I'm sure you're proud,} commented Michelle.  
  
{Ah.the dark is good for these eyes. The light's too strong for cockroaches,} said Mike.  
  
"Well, I'm not a cockroach, so I need help getting out of here," said Gordon, "Could you help me out?"  
  
{Sure,} said Michelle, {Let me just get a better morph,} she added as she transformed into her favourite house-cat morph, the grey kitten with a white tail tip.  
  
{Aight.I'll trot up ahead. Mike, you're gonna rather slow in that morph. You sure you don't want to be something else?} asked Michelle.  
  
{I just switched to a grey tabby.}  
  
"How're those morphs gonna get me back to the boys' dorm? The lights are all out now, I bet," Gordon whispered as he groped around in the dark, looking for his shoes.  
  
{Cat's can see fairly well in the dark. Even in a school like this without any windows. Duh. I'll lead the way, and Mike'll follow to make sure no- one's behind us.}  
  
"Who'd be following?"  
  
{A teach, or Scott or Matt,} answered Mike, as Michelle began to lead the way.  
  
{Follow the waving white speck.} Michelle said eerily, waving her tail around like a flag.  
  
"Who are Scott and Matt, and why?"  
  
{Long story. Michelle and I'll tell you later, with everyone else.}  
  
"Everyone else?"  
  
{Later! Oh yeah, and Shell? Why'd you scream a moment there?}  
  
{It's all Gordon's fault. He'd reappeared right in front of me, and since I wasn't able to focus on him beforehand, he looked kinda blurry. And it was quite a shock considering that I hadn't expected him to appear like that.}  
  
Gordon stumbled a bit, then neatly tripped over Michelle. She nearly screeched aloud, before catching herself and keeping her cat mouth shut. But she didn't silence her mind.  
  
{Gordon! What is the matter with you!? Get off my tail! Ooooooooow! You slimy alien jerk that highly resembles.!! Forget it. Just be careful and don't do that again!!!}  
  
{Oo.next time scream just at Gordon? Mind screaming hurts more since you don't stand a chance of the person losing their voice, or are able to block the sound.}  
  
Gordon got up again, and Michelle was able to lead the way to the gym without any more incidents. Once inside the gym, Michelle slipped into her sleeping bag since the girls' dorm was faster to get to through the hallway, and silently demorphed. Mike and Gordon nearly didn't make it into the boys' dorm. What they didn't account for were the extra girls that weren't able to fit into the girls' dorm, and had been moved into the middle gym. Gordon had nearly stepped on someone's hand. Thankfully, everybody was asleep, and the boys made it into their dorm. Soon, they were asleep too. 


	13. What Vigorous Activity Were You Two Invo...

Michelle was mad. Almost too mad to rationalise, but nonetheless mad.  
  
"I'm going to kill that brother of mine today." she muttered through gritted teeth.  
  
"Being late doesn't mean the world will end," said Mike.  
  
"I could accept this if it were just ten minutes.but it wasn't."  
  
"Shell, someone's gonna turn your clocks and everything backward at least once in your life."  
  
"That's not helping."  
  
"It's a harmless prank that everyone does!" Mike panted a little to keep up with Michelle's speed walking.  
  
"But a whole half-hour behind?!" Michelle nearly screamed. She stopped walking and glared at Mike.  
  
"Being late won't destroy your life, Michelle!" Mike's voice was rising.  
  
"Why're you taking his side.ok. I could take this if we hadn't missed the 8:20 bus, but we missed that too, and now it's 8:35 and we aren't even halfway to school! And we're walking because the next bus comes at 8:40, which is when school starts!" Michelle resumed walking, picking up the pace a little.  
  
"Are you blaming me for this?"  
  
"No, I'm." Michelle shook her head, "Sorry. It's just that I'm angry at myself for telling him about that prank last week, it's Monday morning, I wasn't able to sleep in Saturday because of the sleepover, I have a test first period and Ms. Wren may not give me any time to make up for what I missed.I'm dead!" Suddenly panicked, Michelle started running towards school.  
  
"Of course it's your fault that Nat set the clocks backward," said Mike, running right beside her, "It's always your fault whatever he does."  
  
"Heh?" Michelle slowed back down to speed walking.  
  
"He still copy-cats you. He reads a lot, hogs the computer when you're not around, talks to his birds, his facial expressions are very similar, he drools when he sleeps." Michelle kicked Mike in the shins, who in turn tried to punch her shoulder. Michelle stepped out of the way and tried poking Mike on the right side with her left hand. He in turn grabbed her hand and stomped where her right foot was supposed to be. Michelle hopped out of the way, circled around Mike's right as he switched the hand keeping hers from poking to his right hand. She nearly punched him in the stomach but he was able to catch that hand too.  
  
"Hello, stranger." teased Mike.  
  
"Hi," said Michelle, "Fancy falling into your arms here."  
  
Mike let Michelle go and both of them resumed walking.  
  
"I guess it's just a good thing that Ivy told us that it was 7:30, not 7 o'clock."  
  
"How bad do you think we'll get it from the others when we walk into class late?" asked Mike.  
  
Michelle suddenly burst out laughing, and Mike looked at her strangely.  
  
"How bad do you think we'll get it from the others when they remind us that we can morph?" she exclaimed.  
  
Mike blinked then smiled.  
  
"D@^# it, you're right!" he looked around at the windows of the surrounding houses, "I don't think anyone's watching."  
  
In a moment, there were two sparrows in the air. Their backpacks were substituted for small twigs that they each carried in their beaks.  
  
{We are such idiots!} Mike laughed as he flipped in the air, dodging tree branches.  
  
{How could we forget one of the best things that's ever happened to us?} Michelle wondered.  
  
{It's also partly a curse, don't forget,} reminded Mike.  
  
{The bill for mutant registration hasn't been passed yet at Parliament Hill. Yes, the people for the bill seem strong. But that doesn't give us an excuse to start packing now,} said Michelle.  
  
Mike flew up ahead.  
  
{Race ya to school!}  
  
{You're on!}  
  
Both the morphed teens ducked and wove through branches, fences, and powerlines.  
  
{Dontcha just love flying!!} yelled Michelle as she twirled to miss a slow- flying crow.  
  
{Beats running, any day!} agreed Mike, zigzagging crazily through a young tree's branches.  
  
Within two minutes, they'd arrived at the school. Both demorphed in a corner that they knew very few students passed.  
  
"I win!" cheered Mike.  
  
"Sh! Come on! It's 8:39! We're not late yet," hurried Michelle breathlessly. Morphing did not restore energy, and she was very competitive in races.  
  
Melissa, Phil, Adam and Kevin were already where the group had clustered their lockers.  
  
"You two seem winded," commented Melissa, after barely glancing up from her Tad Williams novel.  
  
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," saluted Michelle, still walking down the hallway.  
  
"What vigorous activity were ou two involved in?" asked Phil suggestively.  
  
"Well?" prompted Kevin.  
  
Adam put on his best shocked face.  
  
"Good God, you weren't having-"  
  
Michelle cut Adam off by throwing her backpack onto him, knocking him over.  
  
"No," she said firmly, then added, "Move over a bit Melissa."  
  
Michelle opened up her locker, hung up her jacket, took her backpack from Adam, and began to get out all the books she'd need before lunch. Adam wasn't finished though.  
  
"Have either of you no modesty?" he continued, oblivious to the glare Mike was giving him, "Especially so early in the mo-"  
  
He was cut off this time by Mike's backpack.  
  
"You don't need to act like Geordie, just because he isn't here," said Mike, an edge in his voice.  
  
Michelle caught his eye, and her expression told him to calm down.  
  
"Aren't we late? Isn't it 8:49 by now?" asked Michelle.  
  
"You kidding? It's 8:19!" corrected Kevin.  
  
Michelle looked at Mike. Mike looked at Michelle.  
  
"I am so gonna kill Nat and Ivy when I get home," they both said together.  
  
"Who's Ivy, and why're you both gonna kill her and Michelle's little brother?" asked Kevin, voicing the question that was on all the others' minds.  
  
"Ivy is my cousin from the Philippines, who's sort of acting as I and Nat's nanny so that my parents can leave us at home to work a few more hours," answered Michelle.  
  
"And we want to kill them because the both set all the clocks in the house, but ours, a half-hour ahead," added Mike.  
  
"And we thought we were late," said Michelle, then added with a sly smile, "Well.what we did a few minutes ago made up for it, eh Mike?"  
  
Mike caught on and laughed a bit.  
  
"OooOOooh yeah!" he agreed, putting on a goofy grin.  
  
Michelle giggled but the others looked confused.  
  
"No, seriously, what were you doing?" asked Adam.  
  
"Oh, just fooling around," said Mike suggestively.  
  
"We were.kinda high, too, huh?" asked Michelle to Mike.  
  
"Good God, what were you doing?" asked Phil.  
  
"High!" Mike exclaimed, then started laughing, Michelle joining him.  
  
"High?" Adam, Kevin and Phil raised their eyebrows.  
  
"Whoo!" Michelle made a wavy motion with her hand then began giggling again.  
  
"High?" Melissa thought to herself, then understood. "Oh! High!"  
  
"Uh-huh!" Mike nodded then continued laughing.  
  
"Hi.OH! High!" Phil nodded, understanding.  
  
"I still don't get this," Adam thought to himself, thought a moment, then reached out with his mutation into Michelle's mind. A wave of bottled up emotions and thought hit him hard instantaneously, as soon as he got in. Adam let go of her mind and fell back, catching himself.  
  
"Whoa, Adam, you ok?" asked Michelle, who had finally stopped giggling.  
  
"I.yeah. Good." Adam nodded, but looked at Michelle oddly.  
  
"What the hell do you guys mean by 'high'?!?" exclaimed Kevin, who hadn't noticed Adam yet.  
  
"You know," Mike pointed up, "High!"  
  
Kevin blinked then said, "You doped up?"  
  
"No! We were up high!"  
  
"I'm not getting this!!!" exclaimed Kevin, "First I thought you were fooling around with each other-"  
  
"We were," interrupted Mike.  
  
"Aaaaaaagh!"  
  
After the last bell that day, Adam, Phil, Melissa, Michelle and Mike were clustered around their lockers, getting their stuff for home.  
  
"How was the French test?" asked Adam, stuffing his math notebook into his backpack.  
  
"Evil," answered Phil.  
  
"Fine," answered Melissa.  
  
"Fun," answered Michelle.  
  
"Only Michelle Gilpo would call a French Unit test fun," muttered Phil, returning a French anthology to his locker.  
  
"That's 'cuz she actually likes French," said Adam.  
  
"Melissa does too," whined Michelle, reaching for her geography text on the top shelf of her locker.  
  
"Well, I like Music more," said Melissa, yanking her backpack out of her locker.  
  
"Where's O'neill?" asked Michelle.  
  
"You mean Kevin?" asked Mike, "He had a chiropractor appointment."  
  
"So he's not coming to the lockers?" asked Phil.  
  
"No."  
  
"Good," said Melissa, grabbing her lunch bag.  
  
"Aight," said Michelle, punching her lunch box into her backpack.  
  
"Could we call a meeting?" asked Mike and Adam at the same time.  
  
Phil looked up and down the hallway. It was empty until the part of the hallways that were out of earshot.  
  
"Ok, when?" asked Melissa.  
  
"Now?" suggested Mike, "Or we can leave to go there now, anyway?"  
  
"Don't see why not," answered Phil.  
  
"Would my place be ok?" asked Michelle.  
  
"Sure," said Adam, then privately, in Michelle's head, {Could I talk to you later? Cough if yes.}  
  
Michelle coughed before putting her backpack on.  
  
"You ok?" asked Mike.  
  
"Mm-hm," nodded Michelle. She slammed her locker shut and waited by the doors to the stairwell for the others to catch up.  
  
"What's the meeting about?" asked Melissa. She stumbled suddenly, then frowned, turning. Who pushed her?  
  
"Melissa, what year?" Phil called, being the last of the others on the stairs, next to Melissa.  
  
"Coming," replied Melissa. She pushed whatever thoughts were in her mind out of it, and hurried down the stairs to the group.  
  
"Wouldn't your parents mind?" asked Adam to Michelle.  
  
"Nah. How can they mind if they're not here? Both are busy until 8 o'clock tonight, Até Ivy won't mind, and Nat usually knows when to stay out of the way," said Michelle.  
  
Phil sat by a table, staring at the birds as if mesmerised. Melissa was in the hallway, looking at the Gilpo family's message board. Adam and Michelle were both sitting on opposite sides of the family's green leather couch, Phil across the room from them and Melissa to their right. Mike was in the kitchen, looking for some chips and pop to take to the main living room for the group.  
  
"Were you looking for this?" Ate Ivy walking into the kitchen and held up a large bag of regular Lays, and a large bottle of Pepsi for Mike to see.  
  
"Um.oh! Yeah! Thanks Até Ivy," Mike took the things from her, "Where're the."  
  
Nat showed up behind Ivy holding up a bag of Styrofoam cups and a bowl.  
  
"Thanks, kid," Michelle called down the hall, "And thanks, Até."  
  
"You're welcome," Ivy smiled then went downstairs. Michelle's little brother went into his room and locked the door.  
  
"Your brother and 'cuz ain't so bad sometimes," said Mike, putting all the things he was carrying onto the small coffee table by the couch.  
  
"Uh." Michelle started.  
  
Mike opened up the Pepsi bottle, which promptly exploded onto him.  
  
"Aagh!" went Mike.  
  
"Whoa!" exclaimed Adam, jumping between Michelle and the Pepsi bottle so that it wouldn't get to her.  
  
"Close it!" exclaimed Michelle, jumping up and snatching the blanket that covered the couch so that it wouldn't get stained, "The couch won't stain, just the blanket," thought Michelle.  
  
"Red alert!" cried Melissa, who had heard the commotion and run into the living room.  
  
"I can't see! There's pop in my eyes!" exclaimed Mike.  
  
"Ok then," Adam pushed him out of the way, grabbed the cap, and screwed the bottle tight. Michelle began barking out orders.  
  
"Melissa, take Mike to the washroom and help him out if there's any damage. Mike, you go wash the pop out with cold water. Adam, help me get some paper towels for the table. How did the carpet stay dry? Phil, you."  
  
Adam and Michelle, who were both left in the room, looked at Phil. Oblivious to the Pepsi incident, he was still mesmerised by the birds. Both Michelle and Adam noticed that Michelle's blue budgie was bobbing its head at a steady pace. They glanced at each other, then shook their heads.  
  
"Hypnotic budgie?" Adam said as they went to the kitchen for paper towels.  
  
"No way," answered Michelle. She grabbed a handful of brown paper towels, and handed half of them to Adam.  
  
"Hey, these are like the school's paper towels," said Adam.  
  
"I know. I said that when my parents brought them back from the store."  
  
Michelle carefully put her towels one by one around the table, so that the pop wouldn't drip onto the floor while they were wiping it. Adam did the same on the other side.  
  
"THAT'S COLD!" exclaimed Mike from down the hall.  
  
"That's the point!" said Melissa, in an annoyed tone.  
  
"Maybe we should help Melissa out?" asked Adam as he wiped the table.  
  
"I think she's ok. Nothing she can't deal with," answered Michelle. She paused, "What did you want to talk about?"  
  
"Later," said Adam.  
  
"And why not now?"  
  
"You might start yelling, and I don't need public embarrassment right now."  
  
"Ok." Michelle glanced at Phil, "What do you think happened to him?"  
  
Adam chuckled.  
  
"Well.here, I'll show you. I'll try to get my thought into your mind. You ok with that?"  
  
"I don't know. Will it work?"  
  
"Yeah. I tried it with my little brother, Sam. I was trying to get him to go to dinner, and it didn't work just talking to him, so I planted the idea that maybe he should go downstairs, and he got up and did that."  
  
"Well.all right."  
  
Adam hesitated, then reached out to her mind, just in case. This time the emotions and thoughts didn't hit him like it did that morning. She was trusting him entirely, though hoping that his thought sharing would work. Adam shared with her a mental picture of Michelle's budgie in her cage, surrounded by old birdseed shells that were giving off visible incense smoke. The bird was bobbing its head up and down, with one of Michelle's watches in her beak. Somehow, the budgie could speak perfectly fine around the watchband. She was saying in a parrot's kind of voice, "You will feed me seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds.many seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds.you will destroy the other biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirds.they must all diiiiiiiiiiieeeeee.you shall set me freeeeeeeeeeeeeee.me freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!. freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!."  
  
Michelle laughed.  
  
"How would my budgie get its little claws onto my watch?"  
  
Adam shrugged.  
  
"I don't know. Maybe Mike gave it to her."  
  
"Mike." Michelle called down the hall.  
  
"No." Adam clapped his hand over Michelle's mouth.  
  
"What?" called Mike.  
  
"Nothing," answered Adam.  
  
"Mi moo mam mebmelmm." Michelle tried speaking around Adam's hand then gave up and crossed her arms, as if giving up.  
  
"You giving up?" asked Adam, his eyes dancing with mischief, then stopped. Michelle had the same look.  
  
"What.?"  
  
Michelle swiftly poked, then tickled Adam on his stomach, where years of experience knew he was extra ticklish.  
  
"No! Help! Michelle!" Adam was laughing too hard to say any more. Michelle laughed as well.  
  
"You giving up?"  
  
Suddenly, to her surprise, Adam grabbed Michelle around the waist, picked her up, and dropped her onto the couch. Years of experience told him not just where she was especially ticklish herself, but that she was more ticklish than he was.  
  
"No!" Michelle gasped for air between giggles. She tried tickling him back, but her arms weren't long enough to get to him. "Stop! No! Agh! Can't breathe!" Finally she gave up. She let her arms drop and let him tickle her. Adam with her and stopped.  
  
"You giving up?" he asked, smiling, but panting for air.  
  
"Mm-hm," Michelle nodded, breathing in precious oxygen.  
  
"Well, well," came Mike's voice.  
  
Adam turned to the sound and Michelle propped herself up on her elbows.  
  
"What vigorous activity were you two involved in?" asked Melissa.  
  
Adam and Michelle looked at each other. Adam's shirt was rumpled and Michelle's hair looked like she had been rolling around. What's more, Michelle's legs were a bit spread apart when Adam dropped her, and Adam was partly leaning on Michelle.  
  
"Oh, you know," said Adam, ducking his head so they would see him blush.  
  
"Just fooling around," said Michelle, who could feel her ears burning.  
  
Everyone turned to the sound of Phil getting up from his chair.  
  
"Could I let the bird out?" asked Phil.  
  
Adam and Michelle burst out laughing. 


	14. New Weapons and Tactics of Mutational Wa...

"So, why the meeting?" asked Phil. He was still sitting in the chair by the birds; his feet were propped up onto the coffee table.  
  
"Just keep waiting," Michelle ordered. She sat on her piano's bench, plinking a few keys idly.  
  
"Why?" asked Melissa, reaching for some more chips as she sat on the floor, "What're we waiting for?"  
  
"Holly and Geordie are coming," answered Mike, "I told them to come by 3:45."  
  
Mike sat on the couch nearest the windows. He tried to keep facing away from the others, as his eyes were bright pink from the pop that sprayed into them. Adam yawned and glanced at his watch.  
  
"Why a full group meet?" Adam asked lazily. He was sitting on the couch with his hands behind his head.  
  
"For a full group announcement," answered Michelle slowly. She was playing Fur Elise on the piano, and couldn't do much else than listen while making music. Doing three things at a time was a bit of a hassle to her.  
  
"Why?" persisted Phil as he refilled his cup with more Pepsi.  
  
"You wanted a meeting, Phil. I read your mind and you were going to request one," said Adam.  
  
Michelle heard a car come into the driveway, and automatically closed the piano lid and ran to open the front door. Looking outside, she saw Holly and Geordie climb out of a van, and grab two bikes from the back. Faintly, she heard Holly say, "Thanks Dad," before following Geordie up the driveway.  
  
"They're here?" popped up Adam from behind her.  
  
"Yeah. Hey Humus!" Michelle called.  
  
"Yo! Nutmeg!"  
  
"Hi Geordie!" called Adam.  
  
"Whatever," Geordie mumbled as he half-heartedly waved.  
  
"He seems cheerier than usual," said Michelle quietly to Adam.  
  
{Yeah. He actually almost waved,} agreed Adam in her head. Melissa pushed her way through Adam and Michelle and stepped outside.  
  
"What're the bikes for?" Melissa asked.  
  
"Holly's dad was our ride here, but he won't be able to drive us back home," answered Geordie.  
  
"Yeah. Later we're biking back to my place and Geordie's folks'll pick him up there. They think we're doing a science project," grinned Holly.  
  
"Hurry up," said Michelle, making a shooing motion with her hands towards the inside of the house, "You can leave your bikes 'round back."  
  
Geordie came into the house and took a seat in a chair beside Phil. Holly came in and tried to sit down in the chair in front of Michelle's family's computer.  
  
"Whoa!" she yelled as she jumped up.  
  
"Whoa!" echoed Melissa.  
  
"Wha.?" started Adam.  
  
"Huh?" went Geordie.  
  
"What happened?" asked Phil.  
  
Holly turned and looked questioningly at the chair. The air around the chair shimmered, and suddenly Gordon appeared.  
  
"Holly, I'm sure you remember Gordon," said Michelle calmly.  
  
"You go invisible?" Geordie's voice went up a few tones.  
  
"Yeah!" Gordon grinned broadly, nearly showing his molars.  
  
"Hah! You pushed me at school, didn't you?" exclaimed Melissa.  
  
"Well, yes. But it's not my fault! You stopped suddenly."  
  
"Welcome to the Mutant's Club, also known as, The Group, Gordon," Phil greeted, shaking Gordon's hand, "You are our eighth official member."  
  
"They're taking it calmly," Michelle said to Mike.  
  
"Yeah. I'd expected more shock," agreed Mike.  
  
"Well, since we all got mutations, other people's mutations are become a little more expected now," pointed out Adam.  
  
"That's true," agreed Mike.  
  
"Show 'em what else you can do," prompted Michelle.  
  
Gordon immediately jumped up and touched the ceiling. His fingers stuck, and Gordon easily pulled up his feet, which were bare, as everyone noticed. He calmly crawled across the ceiling, like Spiderman, and crawled down a wall expertly headfirst.  
  
"Not bad," commented Geordie, "I'm calling you Spiderman from now on, ok?"  
  
"Sure, why not?"  
  
"But now for our announcement," jumped in Melissa.  
  
"Hey?" asked Michelle.  
  
"Actually, it's more like announcements," corrected Phil.  
  
"Right," said Melissa.  
  
"What is it?" asked Adam.  
  
"Come outside," said Holly, "We'll show you."  
  
All eight friends stepped outside. They saw that while Holly and Geordie had put their bikes away, Holly had blown together three piles of dry grass clippings.  
  
"Sorry," Holly said, "I thought there'd be just three of you to show this to."  
  
Skilfully, she controlled the wind to blow some of the clippings from each pile for form a fourth one.  
  
"Ok, the deal is," explained Melissa, "that during the grade 9 sleepover, we found out that mutations are sharable through me."  
  
"Heh?" asked Mike.  
  
"I think I get it," spoke up Adam, "You're a sort of.mutation conductor?"  
  
"Exactly," said Melissa, "Through contact with me, Phil can teleport all of us, we ourselves can share Holly's weather control, they all could heal automatically, and each of us could control fire and ice like Geordie."  
  
"Could I see?" jumped in Michelle. She latched onto Melissa's elbow, and added, "Geordie, could I try your mutation?"  
  
"That's what Holly set out the grass clippings for," said Geordie, "When each of us tried my mutation, the fire and ice came out coloured differently. My fire was blood red, while Phil's fire was green, Melissa's fire was really sharp, light blue, and Holly's fire was orange. Also, my ice was nearly white ice blue, Holly's was pinkish, Phil's was slightly green, and Melissa had dark blue. Now we wanna know what colours you guys have."  
  
"Cool, huh?" smiled Holly.  
  
"Oh yeah!" agreed Michelle. Mike touched Melissa's other arm, Adam and Gordon touched her shoulders, and Geordie touched her head.  
  
"I feel used," commented Melissa, and received two simultaneous pokes from both Adam and Michelle.  
  
"Ok," said Phil, "Mike, aim at the pile furthest left; Michelle, you aim at the pile furthest right. Adam, you go after the one nearest Michelle's, and Gordon, you get that last one. First use fire to light the grass; then put the fires out with your ice."  
  
Mike was first to try. His fire was a strange shade of purple, like a black light. Then Michelle let her fire go, and it turned out to be golden, like burning sunshine. Gordon's fire turned out to be dark blue, and Adam had the exact shade of fire as Michelle, golden.  
  
"That's an interesting coincidence," said Holly to herself.  
  
"Try the ice now," urged Geordie.  
  
"Yeah. And quick, before my house burns down," added Michelle.  
  
Four lines of frost appeared, almost synchronised. Mike had light blue ice; Gordon had an orange tinge to his frost. Once again, Michelle and Adam had the same colour frost; theirs was clear, that looked like water until it hit something, and then crystallised.  
  
"Just some funky coincidence?" said Melissa.  
  
Adam and Michelle both glanced at each other, then at their hands.  
  
"Maybe not," said Geordie, "Since when did mutations make mistakes? It's the mutated that make the mistakes, and I know for a fact that you can't control you fire or ice's colours."  
  
"I wonder if there's some hidden meaning," said Mike quietly. He looked at Michelle, then Adam. Holly, Phil, Gordon, Geordie and Melissa couldn't help but think that he seemed jealous.  
  
"Our group has a love triangle," thought Phil to himself, "Great. Just what we don't need. This could get in the way of our investigation. Oh c%@*!"  
  
"Our other thing!" Phil nearly yelled.  
  
"That can sooooo be taken wrong," said Geordie.  
  
"Oh! That's right!" exclaimed Melissa, then added, "Come on inside! Back to the living room."  
  
The group rushed to the room, and each sat down. Michelle sat between Adam and Mike on the couch, Melissa sat on the floor nearest the chips, Phil and Geordie sat in their chairs, Gordon sat by the computer, and Holly sat on the piano bench.  
  
"What is it?" asked Michelle. Phil took a deep breath.  
  
"Ok," began Phil, "You know during the sleepover? Before the whole fire/ice thing, we were all on MSN. We were talking about our surveillance on Scott and Matt, and then Geordie and Holly mentioned something that seems important. Holly?"  
  
"Geordie and I saw Scott walk to where we think is Matt's house to deliver a sack. Something in the sack moved, and we're pretty sure it's something alive."  
  
"Wait, wait, wait," interrupted Adam, "Alive as in what? Plant or animal.or person?"  
  
"Ok, it wasn't a plant, or a person. Scott was able to carry the sack in one hand, and what Holly here means to say, is that the movement was kind of like something trying to get out. We think it's an animal," finished Geordie.  
  
"But why and animal?" asked Mike, "It could have been a gift or something."  
  
"Sure," said Holly, "But explain the fact that Scott was.kinda shifty-eyed. He kept looking back as if to see if he was followed."  
  
"He could have felt self conscious about the sack," offered Michelle.  
  
"Or maybe he heard you guys following," added Gordon.  
  
"No. Holly kept the wind flowing toward us, and made sure that a few dry leaves blew along the ground, so Scott couldn't have heard us. And we hid pretty well."  
  
"Why do we need to know what it is again?" asked Adam.  
  
"Hey. They were abusing their powers before, remember?" reminded Michelle, "And since we seem to be the only ones that know this, it's kind of our responsibility to make sure that they don't hurt anyone. And I'm curious, too."  
  
"You're getting all this, right?" Mike asked Gordon.  
  
"Yeah," Gordon nodded, "Michelle filled me in on this the morning after the sleepover."  
  
"So, how do we get in there?" asked Holly. She looked expectantly at Geordie, Adam, and Phil, then added, "Come on. Strategic schemes seem to be one of the very few things that you three are good at."  
  
"I resent that," said Geordie.  
  
"Well, I could-" started Michelle.  
  
"No! You will not go in there by yourself as the wind!" commanded Mike, "And Gordon, you are not going in there alone either. Let's make it a rule not to go into anything alone, or just two people. Three people minimum. That way, if someone messes up, someone else with different skills or a different gift can fill in for them to fix the problem. And you'll each be able to watch each other's backs."  
  
"Will this mean that I'll have to go into every mission?" asked Melissa.  
  
"Whoa! Hold on!" interrupted Adam, "Don't say mission! You make this seem huge! And from what we know, this could be just a wild goose chase."  
  
"I don't think you'll need to go on every mission," said Michelle slowly, "Whenever Mike and I morph, whatever we're holding morphs with us. It's like, um, a sort of morph equivalent to what the person's really holding."  
  
"So?" asked Holly.  
  
"Well, I think that maybe if one of us morphers comes in contact with another person, the non-morpher would change as well. It works with everything else, so why not this?"  
  
"Also, say Gordon and Melissa both go invisible. When Melissa makes herself visible again, but isn't touching him, then will she lose that invisibility quality?" asked Adam, "And what if Melissa, Gordon, and say, Holly all go invisible. If Gordon goes visible, will the others lose it too? And what about the conductor, Melissa? And with the fire/ice thing, if Geordie, Melissa, Gordon and Holly all come together, and all go invisible, and all let go, will the fire/ice control, as well as the healing and weather mutations still hold up, so long as there's the invisibility bond?"  
  
Melissa got up and put her arms out for people to take.  
  
"There's only one way to find out," she said, "Gordon, Holly, and Geordie, get over here."  
  
"Try that last one with invisibility first," suggested Michelle, "That way, if it works, then we'll be able to test all the other questions too."  
  
"I have a request," announced Gordon.  
  
"What?" asked Phil.  
  
"Could you do morphing instead of invisibility, and telepathy instead of fire and ice?" Gordon asked, "That way, we'd be able to see what's happening, and I'd be very afraid of the house burning down with random flames popping up everywhere."  
  
"That's true," said Holly, then turned to the couch saying, "Adam, it'll have to be you of course, but Nutmeg and Mike, which morpher?"  
  
"Um, I'm more practised," said Michelle, standing up, "So I'll go."  
  
Michelle, Adam and Holly all touched Melissa's arms.  
  
"So first we morph, huh?" asked Michelle.  
  
"Roger," confirmed Holly.  
  
Michelle took a deep breath, and then concentrated on morphing into a form she knew best; a grey kitten. The air around all four, linked friends shimmered, and soon four identical grey kittens appeared in a pile on the floor.  
  
{Who's got their paw in my mouth?} growled Holly.  
  
{Yeah? Well, who's chewing on my ear?} countered Melissa.  
  
{That's not a paw! That's my tail!} corrected Adam.  
  
The others saw one cat wriggle out of the pile before turning around and separating the other kittens will the ease of someone with much practice. It must have been Michelle.  
  
{Ok, that's enough!} Michelle ordered, {Melissa, get off the table, and Adam and Holly, both of you stop trying to scratch each other's whiskers off!}  
  
All three other kittens obediently sat down on the floor side-by-side across from the kitten that appeared to be Michelle.  
  
"Kitty!" exclaimed Phil, and tried to pick up a kitten, only to be hissed at.  
  
"How can you tell who's who?" asked Geordie.  
  
"In the morph, you can just tell," answered Mike, shrugging, "I think it's the actual animal part of you when you're in its form."  
  
{Now what?} asked Michelle, and she twitched her tail so it pointed towards Adam, {What should we test first?}  
  
{Well, we're not in contact with each other, so lets try using each others mutations, but not our own. Telepathy's kind of pointless to test, but we could try Holly's.}  
  
{Melissa, you jump onto the windowsill and make it rain on one specific spot,} said Michelle.  
  
Melissa did so, and it worked; one square foot of grass was drenched.  
  
{Mwahahahahaha! I am Morwen! Evil witch-cat of the storm!} Melissa cackled.  
  
"Ok, so we know that we don't need to be in contact, so long as we have some sort of bond mutation-wise," affirmed Gordon, "Now what about if the conductor demorphs?"  
  
Melissa jumped off the windowsill, and stood a bit away from the other cats.  
  
{How do I do this?}  
  
{Concentrate on the form that you wish to become. Think about your physical features,} said Michelle in her best 'meditation guru' voice, {Be the you!}  
  
"What?" asked Mike.  
  
{Nothing.}  
  
Melissa easily demorphed, but wobbled a bit, as if she weren't used to just two legs anymore.  
  
{You ok?} asked Holly.  
  
Melissa nodded as she sat down on the floor. There were still three cats on the floor, looking none the worse.  
  
"I have an idea," said Geordie, "Melissa, try to morph back."  
  
Melissa concentrated, trying to change form, back into a cat.  
  
"It's not working," she said, confused.  
  
{Michelle, you demorph,} Adam suggested.  
  
Michelle was a human again in a second, sitting on the floor as if nothing had happened. Adam and Holly, however.  
  
"Whoa!" exclaimed Adam, trying to maintain his balance standing.  
  
"I'm me again!" said Holly, swaying a little.  
  
Holly forced herself back to the piano bench, while Adam stumbled around the coffee table and collapsed onto the couch.  
  
"You ok?" asked Michelle.  
  
"Did switching weight distribution from four feet to two seem hard to you at first?" Adam asked.  
  
"Yeah. But I've had practice, so I'm used to it. Mike still needs a bit of work though," Michelle smiled, "He usually just morphs birds, since they have two legs."  
  
"Couldn't you have warned us ahead of time?" gasped Holly.  
  
"I forgot!"  
  
"Ok, ok. Now we know that the whole bond thing is dependent on the person, who really has the 'bond mutation,' right?" asked Gordon.  
  
"Right," said Adam, "So we can assume that if the bond is a morph, the morpher who started it all needs to remember that whatever form they take, everyone else will take, unless the other people have demorphed already."  
  
"What about the 'mutation equivalent' thing," asked Phil, "We should test that out too."  
  
"Why now?" asked Michelle, "Is it really so urgent?"  
  
"We should know now, so that we can weave it into my plan if it works. It could come in handy," said Geordie.  
  
"You're coming up with something?" asked Michelle excitedly.  
  
"Yeah, but there are some details to work out," answered Geordie, "So test the 'equivalent' thingy now!"  
  
"Ok, who wants to morph into something? It's the person's choice," added Michelle, standing up.  
  
"Me!" said Phil. He put a hand on Michelle's arm, then said, "Go red tabby!"  
  
Michelle concentrated on morphing them both, but the air only shimmered around her, and she ended up the only red tabby in the room.  
  
"What went wrong?" asked Phil, disappointedly.  
  
{I don't think there was enough physical contact,} answered Michelle. She demorphed, and took both Phil's wrists, but again, only she morphed into a cat.  
  
{This is so depressing,} said Michelle, {I'm failing. I might have to hug you, Phil.}  
  
"EEW!" he yelled, and sat down quickly, "Hug someone else. Hug Mike."  
  
"But I can already morph," Mike pointed out.  
  
"NO GIVES!" yelled Geordie.  
  
"NO GIVES!" echoed Gordon.  
  
"I'm done with morphing for now," said Melissa.  
  
"Me too," agreed Holly, "My legs need to recuperate.  
  
"Here, I'll try," said Adam, shakily standing up, "I'll be a blue budgie."  
  
Michelle demorphed and helped him to the centre of the room. She gave him a hug,  
  
and while holding him, concentrated on making them both blue budgies. The air slowly shimmered around them both, and eventually there were two identical budgies standing on the floor in the centre of the room, save for the colours of their beaks.  
  
"Hey! It worked!" exclaimed Phil.  
  
"Hey, what's up, Michelle?" asked Mike.  
  
The female budgie on the floor was swaying a bit.  
  
{Could.I.please.demorph.?} she said quietly.  
  
{Sure,} said Adam.  
  
Michelle and Adam appeared as humans again, but Michelle looked pale as she stood, slightly swaying.  
  
"Nutmeg! Hey! What's wrong?" said Holly, worried.  
  
"She doesn't look too good." said Gordon.  
  
The room whirled around Michelle, and the floor seemed to tilt.  
  
".Michelle?." came Adam's voice from a long way off.  
  
".tired." Michelle forced out before everything went black. 


	15. Stupid Teen Problems, and the Infiltrati...

Black. Everything was black. Michelle could faintly hear someone calling her. No, more than one person. Maybe two. Michelle opened her eyes, only to quickly shut them again. The world was swirling sky-blue and pink. Slowly, Michelle realised that someone was slapping her face lightly, and another person was applying damp towels to her wrist. She tried to open her eyes again, this time lifting her eyelids slowly. Through narrow slits she saw Holly's panicked face, still calling her name.  
  
"Humus? Hey. What happened?" Michelle asked quietly. She tried to sit up, then groaned and lay back down saying, "I'm a bit dizzy. Where am I now? What time is it?"  
  
"Oh God, you're awake! Guys!" Holly called down the hall, "She's awake! Melissa, you can stop the towels now."  
  
"Michelle, are you all right?" asked Melissa, then, "What's your name? What's two plus two? What am I trying to figure out using the formula a2+b2+=c2?"  
  
"Michelle, four, and a hypotenuse which is the side of a right triangle opposite the 90 degree angle," Michelle smiled, then groaned, "Could you please quiet down? I think I've developed a headache."  
  
"Michelle?"  
  
Michelle slowly turned her head toward the voice, so that her head wouldn't start spinning again. Mike stood at the doorway. It clicked to Michelle that she was on her bed in her room.  
  
"Hey Mike. 'Sup?"  
  
"Not much. How are you?"  
  
"I don't know. What happened?"  
  
"You fainted, right after demorphing from testing the whole 'morph equivalent' thing on Adam."  
  
"Where's Geordie, Phil and Gordon?"  
  
"Gordon had to go home. Geordie's sticking around so Holly won't bike home on her own, and Phil can teleport. In fact, he said he'd go as soon as you woke up so that he could drop Melissa off on his way."  
  
Michelle sat bolt upright.  
  
"OMIGOSH! Melissa, you live far away! What time is it-whoa!"  
  
Michelle let herself drop back down.  
  
"Remind me not to make my head do any sudden movements, please? The world goes all whooshy when I do."  
  
Mike turned and went back down the hallway with Melissa to tell Phil that he could go home. Shortly after Phil and Melissa said goodbye, Michelle turned to Holly.  
  
"Humus, where's my brother and cousin?"  
  
"Oh, they went to the store while we were all outside checking our your fires and frost. Sorry. Forgot to tell you. Hey, do you need anything? Water? Something?"  
  
"Um, yeah. Go downstairs to the small library we have, and in one of the small side pockets of my backpack, there's a small bottle of Motrin. Could you go get that and a small glass of water?"  
  
"Sure. Hang on."  
  
Holly got up and went downstairs, and Michelle sighed and stared at the ceiling. She really did not feel too good. She heard a cough at the doorway and looked up.  
  
"Hey Adam."  
  
"Hi."  
  
They were quiet for a moment.  
  
"Come in. My room isn't a trap."  
  
One corner of Adam's mouth twitched for a moment, then he stepped into the room, hesitated, then closed the door behind him before kneeling near the bed.  
  
"You seem stressed," Michelle commented.  
  
"I am. I'm a kid with psychic powers that must save the school from two other mutated teens. Also, a really close friend of mine fainted after trying a new battled tactic and-"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait," Michelle interrupted, and rubbed her temples with one hand. "Ok, go on. Just speak quietly so you don't give me a worse headache."  
  
"Oh. Sorry."  
  
"You ok? Did the morphing thing do anything to you, or what?"  
  
"No. It was just you," Adam shook his head.  
  
Michelle sighed.  
  
"What exactly happened Adam? Tell me everything."  
  
"Well, when you demorphed, you looked really pale. Especially for you since you're pretty dark. And, you whispered something like the word 'tired', and then you just fainted, like that. Luckily I was able to catch your head before you hit the ground, so you didn't get a concussion. But Holly and Melissa had a huge job on their hands trying to bring you to."  
  
"What time is it now?"  
  
"About five thirty."  
  
"You guys should get home! Won't your parents get mad?"  
  
"Nah. I'm going to my dad's place today, and so long as I'm home by 6:30pm, I'm good," Adam paused, then said, "Are you sure you're ok?"  
  
"Yeah. Just, tell Phil and Geordie not to include morph equivalents in their plans unless absolutely necessary. I think getting you to morph without Melissa's help used up nearly all my energy."  
  
"Not all of it?"  
  
"If all of it, then I'd be dead."  
  
A shadow seemed to pass over Adam's face before he said, "Yeah. Not unless absolutely necessary."  
  
"Hey," Michelle raised an eyebrow; "Do you wanna talk about whatever you wanted to talk about earlier? If I get mad, I can't yell since it would hurt my head, and I can't hit you since it would take too much effort."  
  
"If you want."  
  
Michelle carefully nodded, and Adam took a deep breath.  
  
"Ok, uh, how's your grandfather been lately? How's he been managing since that heart attack?"  
  
Michelle sighed, then said, "When did Mike tell about that?"  
  
"He didn't. Mike goes out of his way not to speak to me unless absolutely necessary. I was trying to read your mind in order to find out what you and Mike meant by 'high,' and all these thoughts, memories and emotions just hit me."  
  
"So that's why you fell backward. What else did you see?"  
  
"Well, exhilaration from flight for one thing, but also some resentment against your brother and cousin, and stress from the up-coming French test. Also, you realised that you'd found Nomalca's planner in you Business class and needed to give it back, and a glimpse of a memory from this summer with your parents."  
  
"Which one?"  
  
{Since when was your family racist?} Adam asked inside her head.  
  
{No, not racist. They just prefer that I date and marry an Asian person.}  
  
{But.why?}  
  
{That talk took place a few days after Mike came. They knew that Mike and I were always really close, and Mike's part Philipino. Also, they both knew Mike a whole lot better than they knew you, so.}  
  
{You they had you break up with me because they liked Mike better?!}  
  
Michelle turned away from Adam, but he was still able to read her mind.  
  
{Your excuse is that they yelled at you? Do I have that right?}  
  
Michelle brought up the entire memory of the talk with her parents, for Adam to see. During the talk, Adam saw that she'd begged and reasoned with her parents with every idea and thought that she could use in her defence. Her parents had called her a whore and a mistake that they should never had made, and that they'd wished they could take back, but couldn't. As it was her memory, Adam saw Michelle's feelings during the argument too. Michelle loved her parents, and in everything she did, she tried to make it so that her parents would be proud of her. But that pride never seemed to come up.  
  
{Your parents are really like that?} Adam touched Michelle's arm.  
  
She hesitated, then put her hand over his and answered, {Only some of the time. Usually they're kinder.}  
  
Adam frowned, then said, {I don't want you hurt on my account, but.} his voice trailed off.  
  
The door opened and Holly walked in with the bottle of painkillers and glass of water for Michelle.  
  
"Oh, sorry. Am I interrupting anything?" Holly asked.  
  
"No," Michelle slowly sat up saying, "We were just about done talking anyway."  
  
Michelle opened up the bottle and took one small, white pill out. She popped it into her mouth, and then quickly finished the glass of water before the pill's bitter taste became too strong.  
  
"I think I'll be able to walk to the living room," Michelle said, "Who's here now?"  
  
"Well, Geordie's still here to take me home with our finished 'science project,' and then of course there's Adam, Mike, you, and me," said Holly.  
  
"You sure you'll be able to stand up, let alone walk?" asked Adam.  
  
"If I fall over, you and Holly are responsible for catching me, ok?"  
  
Michelle slowly put her feet on the floor, and gingerly stood up.  
  
"See? Nothing to it! I'll just step out of the room and, whoa!"  
  
Michelle stumbled, but Holly managed to catch her before she fell entirely.  
  
"Nothing to it, huh?" Holly asked.  
  
"Let go of me! I can stand!"  
  
Michelle carefully stood yet again, and before either Holly or Adam could stop her, she morphed into a golden retriever puppy, and quickly trotted down the hall.  
  
"Hey!" Adam exclaimed, then ran to her and scooped her up, "Morphing would take up too much of your energy!"  
  
{I'm fine!}  
  
"Yeah, right!"  
  
The pup tried to wriggle its way out of Adam's arms, but he held her firmly until she stopped. Holly followed behind as Adam carried the pup to the living room.  
  
{Actually, in this morph I'm ok. I think I got back enough energy so that the dog could function normally.}  
  
Adam ignored her and used his telekinesis to levitate her to the ground as he sat on the couch, opposite Mike. Michelle as the puppy walked over to where Geordie sat in his chair, and sat in front of him.  
  
{Have you and Phil formulated the plan of infiltration yet?} she asked.  
  
"Sir, yes, sir," Geordie said loudly, in his best army voice.  
  
{Well? Are you just going to sit there like the barely evolved lump of slime that you are, or will you inform me?} The young dog barked for good measure.  
  
"Sir, the plan is that Holly and you shall share the wind morph with Melissa's help, and Gordon will follow invisible, while Matt is at a piano lesson, and Scott is not around. Adam and Phil will each stand in the backyards of the neighbouring houses as lookouts in case either of the miscreants appears. Signal will then try to telepathically contact Spiderman, Whirl, or you. Then-"  
  
{Call me Cassie,} Michelle interrupted.  
  
"Sir, pardon, sir?"  
  
{Cassie's the 'Animorphs' character that is best with her morphing abilities. And why 'Signal' and Whirl'?}  
  
"Sir, 'Signal' is a card game that Adam always cheats at with his powers nowadays, and Holly likes making her hair whirl around her with the wind. As I was informing, Signal will then try to telepathically contact Spiderman, Whirl, or you, Cassie. If connection fails, Genie will-"  
  
{Wait! Why Genie?}  
  
"Sir, because Genie in Disney's 'Aladdin' said 'First I am here, and now I'm here, and here' in one of the movies. Now, if connection fails, Genie will teleport in there quickly, find the windiest room or the room with two creatures and a boy searching a room; warn you, then pull out. If all four of you do not show up at the John G. Althouse Playscape within an hour of the penetration assignment's commencement, Mozart, Changeling, and I, Yin- Yang, will-"  
  
{Wait, wait, wait,} the pup put a paw over it's eyes, {I understand Mike's Changeling, but why Mozart and Yin-Yang?}  
  
"Did everyone come up with their own nicknames here? I know I made up mine," Holly whispered to the other two boys.  
  
"Yeah," nodded Adam.  
  
"It wouldn't be the same if someone else made them up for them," said Mike.  
  
"Sir, Yin-Yang is the balance of opposites, and fire and ice might as well be opposites, sir!"  
  
{And Mozart?}  
  
"Sir, Mozart was a conductor, sir!"  
  
Adam and Holly groaned while the pup whimpered helplessly, then waved a paw, saying, {Go on.}  
  
"Sir, Mozart, Changeling and I, Yin-Yang, will rush the scene as fast as we can in whatever form Changeling has that is most swift. I, Yin-yang, shall create a disturbance in the two villains' backyard, making sure that the flames hurt nobody, nor cause any unnecessary damage. Changeling will morph into whatever form is most dangerous, so that he and Mozart can cover for you in case Scott and Matt try to come inside. But if all goes well, you, Cassie, Whirl, and Spiderman will try to find something out about that mysterious package. By the way, Scott was seen delivering these bundles every afternoon during the weekend and after school today. Signal will be keeping track of time for our three house bugs. At the end of the hour, Matt will be expected to arrive home, so you, Cassie, Whirl, and Spiderman must head out of there with Signal and Genie. All of you must then rendezvous to the Playscape in order to inform us of what you know about the house and its mysterious packages, sir!" Geordie smartly saluted before asking, "May I get a drink? My throat's dry."  
  
{Be my guest,} answered the pup. It got up and turned to Holly, saying, {You need to remember that after becoming the wind, you can morph to anything but human. Otherwise, you won't be able to morph back, and getting out could pose as a problem. By the way, Yin-Yang, how will we all get into the house in the first place? And how do you know about Matt's piano lessons?}  
  
Geordie drained his cup of pop, then said, "Sir, Mozart/Melissa eavesdropped on one of Matt's conversations when it was her shift to spy. She learned that he has lessons every Thursday at 6:30pm, which last for an hour. The assignment shall begin at that time until 7:30pm, this Thursday. Also, while spying on Scott, Whirl/Holly noticed that a second level window is always open. When you, Cassie/Michelle, and she, Whirl/Holly can get in as the wind through the window. Then, one of you is going to morph into some animal or imaginary creature of sorts that can open doors. Remember that we don't want the two delinquents to know they're being watched, unless entirely necessary. Then, one of you will open one of the doors and let Gordon in, sir!"  
  
"How will we get there in the first place?" asked Adam.  
  
"Sir's friend, all of you will have become wind in the first place in order to get there. You, Adam/Signal, and Genie/Phil will demorph in the neighbour's backyards, sir's friend!"  
  
"Won't the neighbours see 'em?" asked Mike.  
  
"Sir's live-in boyfriend, they'll be in the trees that overlook both yards, sir's live-in boy-ow!"  
  
Michelle had nipped Geordie's ankle.  
  
{"Knock it off!"} said Michelle, Adam, and Mike.  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Hang on. I'm gonna be sitting in a tree for an hour?"  
  
"Don't worry. The tree's both have tree houses. That was another one of Holly's observations. Also, Adam, you'll be in the maple tree, while Phil will be in the oak tree. He knows all this already. Oh, and Mike. What battle morphs do you have? I bet they're really good."  
  
"Ok, Geordie? You forget that you'll be distracting Scott and/or Matt with fire outside."  
  
"No, I didn't forget. But what if it doesn't work? I could just run inside and morph with you and Melissa."  
  
"No, Geordie, they won't need anymore help. While you're putting out the fire if it doesn't work, Nutmeg will morph both her and me into something really good. Gordon can morph with Mike and Melissa if need be," said Holly.  
  
"Besides, fighting's only a last resort if Michelle, Holly, and Gordon don't get out of the house in time," said Adam, "And there will NOT be any bloodshed. The whole diversion thing is just so that our 'spies' don't get trapped in the house, and Matt and Scott don't start wondering why the house suddenly became so draughty, or about strange footsteps."  
  
"D@$^," said Geordie.  
  
"Hey, Holly and Geordie? It's about 6 o'clock," informed Michelle. She had demorphed, and no longer looked tired, "You should head home. And Adam? Doesn't it take about a half-hour for you to get home?"  
  
"Oh, didn't you see? While Geordie was explaining the plan, I called my dad. He'll pick me up in about, maybe, 15 minutes. That ok?"  
  
"It's fine by me," said Michelle.  
  
"Um, yeah. Sure," said Mike.  
  
"So we'll see you guys next Thursday, 6:15pm, at ESA?" asked Holly.  
  
"We'll be there," nodded Michelle, opening the door for both Holly and Geordie.  
  
"Wouldn't miss it," added Mike, half-smiling.  
  
Holly and Geordie waved before grabbing their bikes and zooming off towards Holly's place.  
  
"What's with that?" Michelle asked, pointing at Mike's face before sitting at the piano bench and toying with the keys again.  
  
"Odd sense of déjà vu," he answered, finishing off what few chips were left in the bowl on the coffee table.  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Adam. He sat on the couch and suddenly looked very, very tired.  
  
"I used to be a basic thug in Uganda," Mike explained, "I was one of the strongest, so the gang I was in used to call on me to beat up members of rival gangs. I'd need to study and learn about the person's habits in order to do a good job, and get them when they least expected it. Wasn't too bad, at first. But then again, I was in the biggest, strongest gang. Some of the newer members of other groups occasionally quit and joined us instead. And that felt like true power. Just wearing their colours brought me plenty of respect. Only, once you're in, you're in. They want you around 24/7, even to skip school, and if they told me to do something, I had to do it. Otherwise, they'd kick me out and I'd become a public enemy to them. My parents and I didn't want me to drop out of school or hurt anyone too bad, and it seemed the only way to get me out was to come here and make a fresh start. At least this fighting has a good reason behind it."  
  
Adam stared at his hands, slowly zoning out. Some internal instinct was telling him that something was going to happen to someone, somewhere. Quickly, he got up and yanked the front door open. He looked outside, and saw Michelle's brother, Nathaniel, on his scooter, going fast.  
  
"Nat!" he yelled, "Slow down!"  
  
The younger boy turned this head to Adam, not looking where he was going.  
  
"What?"  
  
Michelle appeared at Adam's side, then clapped a hand over her mouth, just in time to see her brother ride straight onto a sidewalk crack that caught onto his scooter's front wheel. Nathaniel flew off of the scooter, his collected momentum throwing him of the scooter. Mike mouthed, "No," as he watched from one of the house's front windows. Quickly, Adam reached out with his telekinesis and barely managed to push the nine-year-old so that he fell onto the grass, instead of the sidewalk, and so he landed on his side; not his back or head.  
  
"Thank you," Michelle whispered to Adam, before running to her brother. Glancing down the sidewalk that Nathaniel had come from, she saw her cousin Ivy was running toward them.  
  
"Nat? Dragon-child, you ok?" Michelle frantically rolled her brother over so that she saw his face. Mike and Adam ran up. Nathaniel had a few grass stains, looked shocked and was trembling, but was otherwise just fine.  
  
"Yeah," he said shakily.  
  
"Why were you going so fast?" the older sister demanded.  
  
"Ivy and I were racing," he said simply, then, "Is my scooter ok?"  
  
Nat jumped up and inspected his scooter, just as Ivy ran up.  
  
"Is he all right?" she asked.  
  
Mike nodded, then said, "He's more interested in how his scooter is than how he himself is doing."  
  
"You still going to kill him?" Adam asked Michelle, whom by now was standing with her arms crossed, watching her brother.  
  
"Maybe tomorrow," she murmured, "That stupid, stupid boy." 


	16. The Plan Goes Under Way

"...and that is what a monomial is, Brian..." droned Melissa and Michelle's math teacher, Ms. Kariko.  
  
"She's only explained this concept to him four times this period," thought Melissa stormily.  
  
"I wish to sleep," thought Michelle, straining to see the blackboard on the far side of the room where the teacher had written out notes.  
  
"Just forty-five more minutes until class ends," Melissa thought.  
  
{Today's Thursday!} came a thought-voice suddenly.  
  
Michelle dropped her pencil, and Melissa gave an involuntary gasp. At the sound, the other students and the teacher looked at Melissa, who promptly went into a coughing fit to cover up for it.  
  
"What?" Melissa croaked, trying to sound like she had a sore throat as best as she could.  
  
Mrs. Kariko looked at her strangely, then went on with her algebra lesson.  
  
{WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!} Michelle mentally yelled, {WE COULD GET FOUND OUT! MRS. KARIKO IS AGAINST MUTANTS' RIGHTS!}  
  
{Sorry. I didn't think you would be all that interested in your math lesson,} defended Adam.  
  
{Quiet warning would be nice,} Melissa suggested.  
  
{Hey, how are Melissa and I hearing each other?} asked Michelle.  
  
{I made a mental connection with Melissa, and I used her to link up with you. I tried linking with you first, but it didn't work out.}  
  
{That would explain that fuzzy feeling I felt in my head. So I'm a mental conductor now too?} asked Melissa.  
  
{Wasn't it Mozart who seemed crazy because of his mood swings?} Michelle asked, slyly.  
  
{No, that was Beethoven,} corrected Adam.  
  
{Supposedly due to lead that was put into some wines back then, before they realized it was poisonous,} added Michelle.  
  
"Michelle, shall I repeat the question?" asked Mrs. Kariko, annoyed.  
  
"Uh, um," Michelle fumbled between thoughts and verbal speech, "The, eh, lowest common denominator is, er, 12."  
  
"Correct. Now what do we do with the LCD now, Jen?"  
  
{Sharp,} came a new thought-voice.  
  
{Agh! I don't recognise you!} exclaimed Melissa.  
  
{It's Mike. Adam linked me up,} he said.  
  
{You're getting good,} commented Michelle, approvingly, {But how can you handle your classes at the same time?}  
  
{I'm in band,} Adam replied, {The other Adam isn't here, and Mr. Van Zulen is focusing on the flutists right now.}  
  
{And Mike?} Melissa asked.  
  
{Business. You know, we never do anything in this class.}  
  
{So I've heard. Everyone in the group is in Business except me,} complained Melissa.  
  
{That's a good thing,} simultaneously replied the others.  
  
{Why this sudden Meeting?} asked Mike.  
  
{Roll call. Does anyone know where Phil is?} asked Adam, {I haven't seen him today.}  
  
{Michelle and I are in his French class, first period. He was there, alive and breathing,} said Melissa.  
  
{How about Holly and Geordie?} asked Mike.  
  
{I spoke to Holly on the phone last night. She seemed perfectly healthy, so don't worry about her not coming,} replied Melissa.  
  
{Homework, page 22 in the blue book, questions 5, 7, and 9-18,} Michelle muttered, then, {Oops. Did I send that?}  
  
{Yes, but thanks! I can't see the board from here!} said Melissa.  
  
{Yes...anyway, I saw Geordie while in the subway before school this morning. He's fine,} said Adam, {How about Gordon?}  
  
{Oh! I saw him. He's at, um, wait,} Mike thought back, trying to remember when he saw Gordon last, {He's at-}  
  
{Yo mama's house,} sent Michelle, {Whoop. Um, accident?}  
  
{Yeah, right,} said Adam sarcastically.  
  
Michelle started to stick her tongue out, then stopped herself. Worried, she looked around. No one was looking at her strangely, so she assumed no one saw.  
  
{Bite me,} she said.  
  
{Fine. Be that way.}  
  
There was a pause, then:  
  
{ARAY NAKO!}  
  
Melissa looked at Michelle from across the room, while Adam and Mike borrowed her eyes. Michelle was rubbing her temples, as if thinking hard about the question in the assignment in front of her.  
  
{What's that supposed to mean?} asked Adam.  
  
{I think it's Tagalog,} guessed Melissa.  
  
{They're sort of the Philipino variations of 'OW!' or 'AGH!} explained Mike.  
  
{You will pay, Adam,} Michelle thought darkly, {Somehow, some way, sometime, somewhere. But I'll get back somehow.}  
  
{What did you do to her?} asked Melissa, curiously.  
  
{I brought up most of her pain memories, all at once, then concentrated them into her head,} he explained.  
  
{Oo! Can I try?} Melissa asked eagerly.  
  
{Why don't you use your oh so powerful telepathy to talk to Gordon?} Michelle asked angrily.  
  
{I did. He's not in school,} replied Adam.  
  
{So, you can give me a headache, but not send you powers out of school?! Do I have this correctly?}  
  
{-yes.}  
  
{Suddenly I feel waves of annoyance coming off of someone,} Melissa commented, {I wonder why and from whom.}  
  
Adam probed through Michelle's mind for a moment, and suddenly the pain she was feeling stopped.  
  
{Neat trick. Just try not to do it again,} Michelle ordered.  
  
{Fine, be that way,} Adam said, sulkily.  
  
{She will. You should know that,} Mike said.  
  
{Yes. I know. I've known her for over four years, Mike. That's probably twice as long as when you've been able to actually see her.}  
  
Mike started to send something, then stopped.  
  
{He wouldn't care whether or not you liked him, Mike,} Melissa told him, privately, after reading his mind.  
  
{It's all good if Gordon can't come, isn't it?} asked Mike, {After all, two people are fine, and getting him into the house is just another setback.}  
  
{A very small one,} pointed out Melissa, {And he's told me already how excited he is to start this. What's 56 divided by 7?}  
  
{8. What for?} asked Adam.  
  
{In this question, 7x=56,} replied Melissa, {Mrs. Kariko wants the answers with just one variable.}  
  
{That's question 11, isn't it?} asked Michelle.  
  
{Yes.}  
  
{How can you concentrate?} asked Mike.  
  
{Multitasking is one of my many talents,} answered Melissa.  
  
{If Gordon's not in school, then were is he?} asked Adam.  
  
{Wid yo mama. Oops! Second accident?} Michelle tried to make her thought- voice seem innocent.  
  
{I'll try not to mentally bite you again, but you're not helping.}  
  
{Why don't we just go through with this? We'll see how things are and adjust our plans when everyone that can come meets up at ESA later,} said Mike.  
  
~  
  
"They'll be coming any time now," Michelle reassured Mike, leaning on him.  
  
She, Holly and Mike were sitting on the curb in front of the Etobicoke School of the Arts; Holly and Geordie's school. Mike smiled and brushed her cheek with a green feather.  
  
"That's what you said," he grabbed her left wrist and looked at her watch, "20 minutes ago."  
  
"Where'd the feather come from?" Holly asked.  
  
"From one of the lovebirds that Michelle's parents own. It's for you to blow so that the guys know where to go when you're leading them," Mike looked up, "After all, you're the only one in that part of the group who knows where the house is."  
  
"Hey, Nutmeg," Holly tapped Michelle's shoulder after a moment.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Think you'd be able to survive find food as a snake?"  
  
"Blind, I could find you any day."  
  
"Yeah, right. Prove it."  
  
"Fine."  
  
Michelle morphed quickly, sitting down, while Holly tried as quietly as possible to stand a ways off.  
  
"Doesn't what we're doing at the house count as abusing our gifts?" asked Mike.  
  
{Meh. Like they didn't do it first,} answered Michelle.  
  
She slithered along the sidewalk, without eyes, tasting the air, trying to sense where Holly was standing quietly.  
  
"Do you give up yet, Nutmeg?"  
  
The vibrations from Holly's voice helped Michelle pinpoint where she was. Michelle recklessly slithered as fast as she could towards the vibrations' source, straight into Holly's left sandal. Michelle twined herself around Holly's ankle.  
  
{Thank you, Humus, for that very useful clue. Has anyone else come into sight?}  
  
"No," Holly put a hand by Michelle, who slithered and interlaced herself in Holly's fingers, "I've never heard of an eye-less, blue, grass snake."  
  
"Surely you've heard of blue-grass music before," joked Michael, grinning.  
  
Both the girls groaned.  
  
{I like creativity,} stated Michelle.  
  
A puff of blue smoke appeared at the three teen's left. Phil, Melissa and Adam had arrived.  
  
"Hello," greeted Melissa.  
  
Adam waved and Phil nodded.  
  
"Cool. A blue grass snake," said Phil, adding, "Does it dance to blue- grass music?"  
  
The snake hissed and reared up.  
  
"My dear Nutmeg here is tired of blue-grass jokes. Please make attempts to restrain yourselves," advised Holly.  
  
Mike stood up, saying, "Just two more people."  
  
"May I?" Melissa put a hand out to the snake, which transferred over to her.  
  
"Cool."  
  
"What time is it?" asked Adam.  
  
Mike glanced at Michelle watch, which she'd given him to hang on to while in morph.  
  
"It's 6:05. It takes about 15 minutes to get there, and we need to get there by 6:30, so we should begin in ten minutes."  
  
Gordon came around the corner, speed walking, as a TTC bus stopped at its designated place across the street.  
  
"Am I late?" Gordon asked, a bit out of breath.  
  
"No," said Phil.  
  
"Hey!" Geordie waved from across the street before walking over to the others.  
  
"You took the bus?" asked Melissa.  
  
"Yeah. It's the only way I could get here."  
  
"I guess since everyone's here, we should start?" asked Gordon.  
  
"Fine by me," said Mike.  
  
The others nodded. Melissa put Michelle on the ground, who demorphed, standing.  
  
"Aight. We can-actually, wait. I want to change my name. I'm destroying Cassie's character by using her name, and she's cool."  
  
"So?" asked Geordie.  
  
"I'll rip off from the game 'Bloody Roar' instead."  
  
"What?" asked Holly, blinking.  
  
"You play 'Bloody Roar'?" asked Phil, incredulously.  
  
"Why shouldn't she?" countered Mike.  
  
"Well, she's a girl," said Geordie.  
  
"Hey! What's so bad about girls playing Playstation?" asked Melissa.  
  
"Yeah!" backed up Holly.  
  
"Fine, fine. What character?" asked Phil.  
  
"Uriko. The Beast."  
  
"Ok, ok, FINE! Let's get this over with," prompted Geordie.  
  
"Melissa, help me get Holly to become wind," said Michelle.  
  
Holly stepped toward Melissa, but when Michelle tried, she stumbled and landed hard on the sidewalk.  
  
"Ow! Wow. Legs. Need I say that was my first time as a snake?"  
  
"Um, why can't the rest of us going to the house become wind too?" asked Gordon, "That would make things easier."  
  
"Not really," Michelle staggered up with Mike's help, and leaned on Melissa, "Gravity and physical form hits you really hard at first. It's better if just one other person struggles to adjust for a bit, while the others can make the most of the hour we've got."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me this before?!" exclaimed Holly.  
  
"You didn't asked," answered Michelle, "Don't worry. You can morph something really light when we're in the house. But you can't stay as the wind the house, because I don't want to, so you have to morph something. And it would make things harder when we're looking through their stuff."  
  
"Fine."  
  
Holly took one of Melissa's hands, and Mike quickly tapped Michelle's elbow, saying, "Be careful," before Michelle took the other. For a moment, all three girls of the group disappeared, and then Melissa reappeared.  
  
"AAH!"  
  
She fell flat on the sidewalk, and stayed lying there, twitching a little.  
  
"you ok there?" whispered a small voice by her right ear.  
  
"Whoa! Michelle wasn't kidding!" Adam exclaimed, watching Melissa.  
  
"thank you," came a whisper by his right ear.  
  
"Phil," Melissa started, her words slightly slurred, "Teleport Mike, Geordie and I to John G. like our plan, then come back here so you can go on your way."  
  
In a matter of seconds, Phil did as he was told, and Holly led them to the house blowing the green feather that Mike had dropped at last moment.  
  
~  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"No," chorused Phil and Adam.  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"Gordon, knock it off!"  
  
"Fine."  
  
There was a short pause.  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
{Why did you add him into the plan, Phil?}  
  
{That was Geordie. Not me!}  
  
~  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"Holly, can't we go any faster?" Phil asked.  
  
The feather stopped moving and dropped to the ground. The three boys stopped walking.  
  
"we're almost there. ten more minutes," came his answer.  
  
"why don't you just mentally bit him?" Michelle whispered to Adam.  
  
"I did. Twice. He doesn't seem to care."  
  
"Are we-are you talking to yourself, Adam?"  
  
Gordon grinned at Adam's annoyed look. The green feather picked up from the ground and the boys started following it again.  
  
"Knock him over. Please. I know you must be annoyed by now too. Just get him to shut up," Adam whispered in a low voice.  
  
As soon as they came to a deserted plaza, where she knew no-one was looking, Michelle wafted over behind the three boys until she found what she was looking for: a small patch of dry dirt.  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
She started slowly, twirling around in the patch, picking up the dirt little by little.  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
She let a bit of her gather shat small breeze was blowing through the street, and added it to her silent, miniature hurricane.  
  
"WATCH YOURSELF!" she finally called out, and quickly twisted towards Gordon.  
  
""Are we-WHOA!"  
  
Hurricane Michelle was swirling at just about Gordon's full height. Gordon stood staring for a moment, then started running just a moment too late. She whipped the dust around, hitting Gordon from all sides.  
  
"CAN YOU SHUT UP NOW UNTIL WE GET TO THE HOUSE?"  
  
"Ok! Fine! I'll stop!" Gordon managed to say.  
  
The wind stopped and Michelle let the dust she picked up land on Gordon, who was by now sneezing uncontrollably.  
  
"Thanks, Michelle," said Phil, who was a bit of a ways ahead by now.  
  
"Are we-uh, oh."  
  
Gordon stopped himself as soon as he saw a hurricane with dry leaves beginning to form.  
  
~  
  
"My. Isn't this treehouse great?" Phil commented from his tree, "Very rustic. Feels like how our ancestors must have lived in trees, way back-"  
  
{Shut up,} Adam ordered.  
  
He positioned himself so he could see out the treehouse window onto the road where the car Matt was in had gone, and down the driveway by the side door of the house, where he knew Gordon stood, invisible.  
  
{Someone might hear you. Then you'd get kicked out, and there goes part of our backup plan.}  
  
~  
  
{Humus, how's recuperation coming?}  
  
Michelle slithered down the hallway, looking in all doors, trying to find her way from the kitchen to the side door. She heard a whine from the kitchen, and guessed that Holly had morphed into a puppy.  
  
{Ooh. Not as well as it could be. How long did it take for you to get used to this, Nutmeg?}  
  
{Do you really wanna know, Humus? Actually, we should use our other names. I meant Whirl.}  
  
The purple anaconda looked through a doorway at her left.  
  
{That's more like it! The door!}  
  
The white shi tzu in the kitchen hoisted itself up slowly, and collided with before staggering into the hallway.  
  
{Well, Uriko, if I didn't want to know, why would I ask?}  
  
The snake gave itself little suction cups on its underside and inched up the door to the knob.  
  
{It could have been a rhetorical question, Whirl.}  
  
Turning into the first door to the right, the small dog found itself in a bedroom with black walls.  
  
{Whoa.}  
  
Then the dog's ears perked up, {There's a picture of Hannah on the desk in a red picture frame! This must be Matt's room! Aah!} the dog jumped onto the unmade bed, {I have to keep his sheets! Maybe there's some of his-}  
  
{Whirl! Don't distract me!}  
  
{Sorry.}  
  
The anaconda twisted and wrapped itself around the doorknob. Slowly, it turned, and then Michelle heard a click.  
  
"Yes! Finally you got the door open!"  
  
Gordon quickly swung the door open, coming visible again, and inadvertently threw Michelle of the door, onto the wall behind it.  
  
{Spiderman, you creep!}  
  
The anaconda hissed at him.  
  
"Oo. Sorry Carrie. Hey! You're a purple anaconda!"  
  
{The name was never 'Carrie'! It was 'Cassie'! And I'm Uriko now, Cockroach-boy!}  
  
{Temper, temper. Uriko, calm down,} Holly scolded.  
  
She padded into view of Spiderman and Uriko, with a shred of black fabric in her teeth.  
  
"What is that?" Gordon asked.  
  
{It's black fabric,} Whirl answered, sitting down.  
  
"I knew that! I meant, where is the fabric from?"  
  
{Don't tell him, Whirl! He either wouldn't understand why you took it, or he would.}  
  
"Why can't I know?"  
  
{Never mind. Whirl, you keep looking in Matt's room, as well as the rest of this floor.}  
  
{If you insist,} the shi tzu said cheerily as it ran out of sight.  
  
{Spiderman, in the hallway, first door to your right, there's some stairs going I believe into the basement. You look there first.}  
  
"Right. Where're you going?"  
  
{Straight to the kitchen.}  
  
"What?!"  
  
{I'm kidding! There's a second floor in this house. I found some stairs going up, three doors to the right of this hallway.}  
  
"Oh. I see."  
  
Spiderman ran past Uriko and turned left. Straight into a wall. Whirl in Matt's bedroom felt the floor vibrate a little and heard a slightly muffled thud.  
  
"OOW!!"  
  
{What happened?} came Adam's voice, {Phil nearly fell out of his tree.}  
  
"Cassie, you liar!"  
  
{It's Uriko.}  
  
The anaconda found Spiderman rubbing his forehead, which was swiftly forming a lump, as he sat on the floor.  
  
{Sorry Signal. Nothing big. Is Genie ok?}  
  
{I said nearly. Not that he actually fell.}  
  
{Gordon didn't realise the house's side door was right by the end of the house's hallway, and ran into a wall. Spiderman, I said the stairs to the basement were at the right.}  
  
Gordon cursed, got to his feet, then went into the basement, grumbling.  
  
{Whirl, I'm gonna morph into something with legs so that I can go up the stairs a little easier. Make sure you're on the floor, ok?}  
  
{Um, ok! I'm ready!}  
  
The purple anaconda shimmered, and in its place, an adult Dalmatian with dark red spots appeared.  
  
{How many more animal mutations are you going to create, Uriko?}  
  
{As many as I can while it's safe. What do you think are the chances our Prime Minister lets the bill for mutant registration pass?}  
  
Whirl remorphed into her shi tzu before answering.  
  
{Well, there are parent groups like the Student's Parent Council who want safety for their kids. Then there are other child-care associations. Teachers, parents, actually the entire school for that matter would want to know who's dangerous in their classrooms. But religious groups and anti-prejudiced people say that mutant registration is just another way to single people out and discriminate against them.}  
  
Uriko trotted up the steps and found there was a door to the second floor.  
  
{Sound's like our future looks bleak,} the Dalmatian mused, struggling while trying to turn the doorknob with her forepaws.  
  
{Actually, the Prime Minister himself is against mutant registration,} Whirl said, in one of the desk's drawers, then added, {Hey! A journal!}  
  
Whirl tossed the brown book onto the floor and jumped after it. Uriko finally heard the knob click, and leaned on the door to get it to swing open.  
  
{Are you sure it's Matt's journal?}  
  
The red-splotched Dalmatian sniffed around, trying to pick up an unusual scent that was not normally found in a house.  
  
{It's says on the front: 'Matt Munro's Journal: School Year 2003-2004'. This has to be it.} Whirl answered in her best 'what-you-just-said-was-stupid' voice. The shi tzu nosed the book, trying to flip open the cover. She heard a big dog's nails slowly click in the hallway, then a dragging sound.  
  
{Help me out here! I can't open up the cover.} Holly called.  
  
{Hang on. Let me get downstairs.}  
  
The shi tzu's ears perked up, and the fur on it's back straightened.  
  
{You're not downstairs?}  
  
{No. I think I'm in some sort of workout room. There're weights everywhere, and a treadmill.}  
  
{You're not in the hallway?}  
  
{No. Would I lie to you, Whirl?}  
  
{But if-}  
  
Whirl stopped. There was a shadow by Matt's bedroom doorway. Whirl softly trotted to the doorway as Uriko carefully came down the stairs.  
  
{What's up, Whirl?}  
  
Halfway down the staircase, both girls, Signal, and Genie heard Spiderman scream in the basement.  
  
{Gordon, what's happened?!} Adam, Holy, and Michelle all asked at once.  
  
Uriko sped down the stairs as fast as she could, and found Whirl, still in her shi tzu morph, visibly trembling, facing a sitting, very big, female Akita dog. It looked like it had dragged itself to Matt's bedroom's doorway. Michelle walked forward slowly, then nudged the real dog's right side carefully, hoping it wouldn't wheel around and bite. The Akita silently turned to Michelle. The first thing that she noticed was that the Akita was holding a skinny runt of a puppy by the scruff of its neck in her teeth. Then Michelle notices the bigger dog's breathing was very shallow.  
  
{It's been practically hacked up in its left side!} Michelle exclaimed in horror.  
  
{What?} Adam asked, adding, {Phil's wondering the same.}  
  
{Wait. Holly, check on Gordon now,} Michelle ordered.  
  
Quietly, Holly went into the basement.  
  
{Adam, just use my eyes.}  
  
The Akita still hadn't moved.  
  
{That is just. . .sick. That dog has lost an eye; it's still bleeding.}  
  
{Can't you see? It's already half dead. It's dying.}  
  
{Michelle, it's 7:20 p.m. We've got 10 minutes.}  
  
The Akita gently put her puppy down, and lay behind it. She pushed the pup towards Michelle with her nose.  
  
{It wants you to take it, Uriko.}  
  
{I realise, Adam.}  
  
There was a pause.  
  
{Well? Michelle, we're low on time.}  
  
{I know, I know!}  
  
{Knowing you, you're going to hate yourself forever if you don't take it,} pointed out Adam.  
  
Michelle inwardly sighed.  
  
{I don't know how this will work, but,}  
  
Uriko nosed the Akita puppy. It whimpered, and she realized it was hungry.  
  
{I'll take care of her for you,} Uriko said quietly to the mother-Akita. But she soon found that her message was a moment too late.  
  
{Is it. . .is she. . .?} Adam stopped himself.  
  
"Uriko. . ." Gordon called.  
  
Uriko was already walking down the stairs carrying the puppy. She saw that the Akita had left a wide trail of blood up the stairs and along the hallway. At the foot of the stairs, the tawny coloured pup began to wriggle and protest.  
  
{What?} Uriko asked it, putting it down on a step level to her head. She nuzzled it a little, saying, {This is where you were kept, isn't it?}  
  
The puppy whimpered.  
  
{Signal?}  
  
{Yes, Uriko?}  
  
{It's the puppy. She's terrified to go down to the basement, and I need to go there.}  
  
{This affects me, how?}  
  
{I want either you or Genie to quickly grab the puppy when I put her outside, and keep her in your treehouse until we all leave.}  
  
{Hang on. Ok, Phil refuses. Do I have any real choice in this?}  
  
{None whatsoever.}  
  
{Fine. I'm climbing down the tree now.}  
  
{Thanks.}  
  
Uriko grabbed the pup, not protesting, and ran up the stairs, around the corner, and realised that though the inner door was open, there was a screen door.  
  
{Um. . .Signal?}  
  
He stepped into view, and raised an eyebrow. Uriko sat down, adopting an English accent.  
  
{Might you please be a dear and open the door for me, Signal? Silly paws, you know. Terrible for opening doors.}  
  
{Depends. Do I have any real choice in this?}  
  
The Dalmatian narrowed her eyes.  
  
{Fine.}  
  
Adam pulled the door open.  
  
{Uriko, what's taking you so long?} came Whirl.  
  
{Hang on. Here,} Uriko got up and held the small dog towards Signal.  
  
"How do I, um, carry it?"  
  
{You're kidding?}  
  
If it were possible, the Dalmatian would have looked incredulous. Signal shook his head. Uriko sighed.  
  
{Do you at least know how to carry a baby?}  
  
Signal looked blank, then shook his head.  
  
{How do you carry you little brother?}  
  
"I half drag him.}  
  
{AGH! BOYS! You cradle it. Hoi. This isn't rocket science.}  
  
"Well, you're a girl."  
  
{Take her! I don't have time for this! Just take her!}  
  
Adam careful, if not awkwardly, held the puppy, which was too weak to struggle, then asked, "How do you know your parents will let you keep this?"  
  
Uriko had already started down the stairs to the basement for the second time that day.  
  
{I honestly don't. What's up, Spiderman? What'd you find?}  
  
Spiderman and Whirl were at the far side of the basement. About five, long planks of wood were piled to the side, and both teen mutants were looking into a hole in the floor, about five feet long and five feet wide. Then Uriko saw the looks on both their faces.  
  
{What's in there?} Uriko asked, nervously.  
  
She trotted over and looked in.  
  
{God,} Whirl said, stunned, {Who could do that?}  
  
{That. . .ugh,} Uriko turned away.  
  
"What've they been doing here?" Gordon asked. 


	17. Altogether Again

(Author's note: I'm now using these arrow things for when they use telepathy, because for some reason brace brackets and the arrow things that point the other way don't work. So now stuff will look like: >>blah, blah, blah>>. Just thought I'd mention that.)

>>Sick,>> Uriko muttered to herself, then, >>Signal?>>

>>Your new pet is a nuisance. It won't sit still. And hurry up. I'm allergic to dogs.>>

>>That's not what she wanted to talk about,>> put in Whirl.

>>And you're only allergic if you eat its fur,>> added Uriko.

Gordon noticed that the girls were very quiet for an unusual amount of time.

"Are you two talking to Signal?" asked Spiderman.

>>Yeah,>> answered Whirl, picking up something she'd left on the stairs.

"Tell him to get Genie so I can leave first?"

>>Nice try, but we're all leaving at once,>> said Uriko, >>Phil's taking Adam to John G. first, then he'll bring in Melissa to teleport the rest of us.>>

"Doesn't Genie need Mozart to take Signal?"

>>No. The whole hug thing works, but only for one person at a time,>> explained Whirl.

(meanwhile, at John G...)

Melissa tore up the bit of bark she held into small strips. One, two, three. . .twenty-nine, oops, no more. She reached for another piece of bark and started the whole process again.

"Why did they leave me here with these to incompetents?" Melissa thought, with added teen angst, "Michelle, Holly, you're both traitors. Leaving me here with two bone- headed. . .boys!" the lone girl of the back-up group looked at her two assistants, then thought "Well, it's Geordie and Mike. Holly likes Geordie and Michelle likes Mike, so maybe they think that they're the greatest people in the world." Melissa tried getting up, but then flopped down again, "How does Michelle do this? She morphs from the wind to human like it's the easiest thing to do."

"Someone looks unhappy," Mike commented, sitting down beside Melissa, "What's wrong?"

"Traitors. Deserters. Cowards the both of them," Melissa grumbled.

Mike blinked, then asked, "Who?"

Melissa flicked a bit of bark at his face, saying "Michelle and Holly. Who else?"

Mike raised his eyebrows.

"Is there still some hate between the two of you from grade seven?"

Melissa paused shredding wood, then continued.

"How much do you two discuss?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Am I the only one bored here, or what?"

Geordie walked up, showing off his skill by practising juggling two balls, one of fire, and one of hollow ice, in order to make it lighter.

"Up-start," Melissa muttered, turning back to her bark.

"Nah. We're all bored. Why did you give the others the interesting job, and not us?" Mike asked.

"I didn't think it'd be this boring. Besides, they're just scouting out the terrain and such. When we get the action job, we'll get to do some real action. Like burning people. Hey Mozart! Pay attention!"

Geordie threw a tendril of flame at the dry bark in Melissa's hands. The fire immediately consumed it.

"Aagh!"

Melissa flung the kindling at Geordie.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU!"

"Relax," Geordie said nonchalantly, putting out the small fire before it spread, "I'd make sure the fire didn't burn you."

Melissa looked at her hands. She grudgingly admitted to herself that she was not harmed in any way, but would _not_ let Geordie see.

"That's kind of dangerous though," Mike pointed out, "How do you know you'd be able to control the fire that well?"

"Holly helped me practice with the fire completely covering her hands. She says she can't even feel the heat from the fire," Geordie said proudly.

"That's _Holly_," Melissa said, "She'd say anything to please you now."

"Maybe not everything," said Mike, "Even she wouldn't say he's the hottest guy there is.'

Melissa nodded thoughtfully, "True. She, Michelle and I all agree that that's Matt."

Mike and Geordie stiffened while Melissa laughed.

"Hey, watch what you say," Geordie warned, "Next time I throw fire at you, I may not-"

"Shut up!" Mike hissed suddenly, and gestured towards the school. One of the school's janitors was outside, picking up garbage on the school's colis. "You know, when humans hear mutants like you talk like that, that gives them all the more reason to want to lock us up."

"You sound like we're aliens or something," Melissa commented.

"To some people, we are," Mike retorted.

"You know, Ugandan mutants should be the ones locked up," Geordie thought out loud, "After all, they're more paranoid than the Canadian ones."

Mike threw a handful of mulch from the ground at Geordie.

"Well, _Georgie_, at least we aren't ugly."

Geordie hurled himself at Mike.

"Ok, nobody calls me 'Georgie'!"

Both teens fought hard, both with fists, curses, and insults. Mike had the advantage of experience from gang fights, as well as height, age, and weight, but he had to admit that Geordie was smarter at thinking up biting insults and dodging his blows. Melissa merely sat by and watched, neither encouraging nor stopping the fight.

"Maybe sticking with these losers isn't so bad," she thought to herself, "If Holly were here, she would probably jump in to help, and Michelle tells me that Mike wouldn't hit a girl, so Holly and Geordie would make short work out of him. And Michelle would probably break up the fight pretty quick. Her brother and his cousins occasionally fight with one another during family meetings."

After about ten minutes, Melissa couldn't help but yell, "Ok, guys? That position looks kind of wrong. Especially since you're both boys. Or are you, Geordie?"

Both teens immediately pulled apart. Mike felt something dripping down his face and realized he had a bloody nose. (Author's Note: And I don't mean 'bloody' as in "Ugh, you call that lump a nose?" I mean as in the red stuff.) With some satisfaction, he noted that Geordie had his fighting signature: two black eyes.

"You wouldn't have any tissues on you, would you?" Mike asked Melissa.

"Or an ice pack?" added Geordie.

Melissa looked towards the school. The janitor either hadn't seen, or didn't care.

"Nope. I didn't think I'd need to baby-sit you two. After all, you're both adolescents that are supposed to be responsible considering you're mutants. But I guess you're not that responsible."

Geordie's ears perked up.

"Oh yeah. We're mutants," he said, pointedly.

Geordie looked at Mike. Mike looked at Geordie. Both felt their small wounds. Then they both looked at Melissa.

"No! I am _not_ healing-"

Melissa protested a moment too late. In a trice, Mike and Geordie tackled her and used her mutation to heal themselves. The only female of this division of the group suddenly thought of something.

"You know, this must look extremely wrong," she said, "If you know what I mean. . ."

"Eew!"

Both boys immediately scrambled away so that there was sufficient distance between each of them. Mike's nose had stopped bleeding, but Geordie's black eyes hadn't had enough time to fade entirely. Mike rubbed his face into his shirt to wipe away the blood, and was glad it was an old, black shirt that he didn't like much anyway. Geordie smirked.

"Pretty-boy," he taunted, "Can't take a little blood on your face?"

Melissa laughed inside, "Yeah, it's not macho," she thought to herself.

"At least I don't look like a racoon," Mike pointed out.

"D(bleep). They aren't gone?" Geordie touched the bruises, then looked at Melissa again.

"Don't get within six feet of me," Melissa glared, then started laughing, "You really do look like a racoon. I wonder what Holly will say."

"She may think it's cute," Geordie said, hopefully.

"She won't. A racoon attacked one of her dogs, so now she has a permanent prejudice against them," informed Mike.

Geordie looked so down, Mike couldn't help but mutter, "Sucker," under his breath, with a smirk. But Geordie heard.

"You know what I say to that?"

Geordie threw an ice storm at Mike.

"_That's_ what I say!"

"S(bleep)! Geordie!"

Mike tried dodging the storm, but Geordie wasn't trying to freeze him all at once. The ice started freezing at Mike's fingertips, which slowly spread to his fingers, to his palm, and around his wrist. Then they all heard a whoosh to their right, by the Playscape.

"Oh f(bleep)! What the hell are you doing, Geordie!" Adam yelled.

Geordie stopped his work and got rid of the ice storm as Adam put a bundle on the ground and ran over.

"I was kidding, man! What's your problem?" Mike and Geordie glared at each other.

"What hap...you know what? I don't want to know," Adam shook his head.

"Hey, Melissa? We're supposed to get the others," said Phil.

"Finally! Something interesting to do."

Melissa and Phil teleported, leaving the three boys to sort out what happened.

(and then the setting changes, yet again...)

A column of smoke appeared at Holly, Michelle, and Gordon's left; Phil and Melissa stepped out of it.

"Are these real dogs, or are they Uriko and Whirl in morph?" asked Mozart.

"The red-splotched Dalmatian is Michelle, and the white Shi Tzu is Holly," informed Gordon, pointing at each dog in turn.

"What's in the pit in the floor?" asked Phil, running up to look in, with Melissa following.

"Is it a finished geography paper?" joked the all-intelligent-yet-not-so- all-wise Melissa, "Is that why you all look so surprised?"

"NO!" Uriko, Spiderman, and Whirl chorused.

Too late.

"Aah!" Mozart screeched.

Before he knew what he was doing, Phil teleported instinctively to the other side of the room. Holly saw, and made a mental note to remind him to be careful.

We tried, Uriko stated.

"There are mangled, bloody dog corpses in there, and all you did was say, 'No!'" Genie glared, "You call that _trying_!"

Thanks a lot, Phil! Now that you mentioned it all out loud, I have to admit that it's real, Whirl groaned, I'll be outside, being sick if you need me.

The Shi Tzu walked toward the stairs, only to be stopped by Uriko.

"I'd like to be sick too, but it's almost 7:30, and Matt's going to come back soon," Melissa the occasionally-wise pointed out.

"Fine. Whirl, help me replace everything to the way we found it. Genie, once we're done, get us out of here as fast as you can. Once we're all at the old middle school, Mozart and Whirl can up-chuck to their hearts' content," ordered Gordon, he-who-very-rarely-takes-leadership.

(back to John G. Middle School...)

"What happened!" Gordon and Holly exclaimed.

Michelle took it all in at a glance. Mike's blue left hand, Adam's disgruntled look, and Geordie's racoon look.

"Mike and Geordie got in a fight, Geordie got offended and started freezing Mike, and now Adam's trying to sort things out, but it's not working since they won't all co-operate," Michelle concluded out loud after a moment.

"She's good," Phil said to Melissa.

"You have no idea," Mike thought to himself, but Adam subconsciously heard the thought and realized the innuendo. Michelle didn't understand the look he gave her.

"Yeah. That's what happened, and now we're wondering if Geordie taking the ice away will help," notified Adam.

Michelle walked up and felt Mike's hand.

"It's completely solid!" she exclaimed, concerned.

Geordie seemed self-satisfied from a job well done, but withered at the disgusted look that Holly gave him.

"Wait," Melissa jumped in, "If Mike's hand is solid ice, taking away the ice would take away his hand, wouldn't it?"

Michelle jumped between Mike and Geordie.

"Don't do it!"

"Shell. Relax," Mike said, grinning.

"Well that's no good. I should have stopped Geordie faster, eh?"

Melissa's lightness of the situation was dimmed down a bit by a joint glare from Mike, Michelle and Geordie. Michelle took Mike's hand in-between both of hers and tried slowly thawing it out herself.

"Your hand is cold," she commented, quietly.

"No. Really?"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Holly said, suddenly.

"It's a good thing his hand is cold?" Gordon asked.

"Um. . .no. Geordie, can't you thaw his hand a little bit faster with your fire?"

"Wouldn't he get burnt?" Phil asked.

"No," Melissa answered, "He and Holly have been practising."

Geordie tried it, wanting to be on Holly's good side, knowing she was a bit annoyed with him.

"I can't move or feel my hand," Mike informed the others.

Michelle held it to her cheek, then said, "It's not cold or frozen anymore, either."

"Couldn't you have checked his hand normally?" Melissa asked, "Or did you just have to flirt with him?"

"My hands are numb from trying to help him. Of _course_ I had to check that way."

"Sure. Do I need to thaw you too, now?" Geordie asked.

". . .Nope."

"I think maybe some nerves were destroyed when Geordie froze your hand, Mike," Gordon said.

"Just some!" exclaimed Mike, "If that's true, and I can't feel my hand, then all or most of the nerves were badly damaged."

Michelle looked at Melissa, "You looking at his hand?"

Melissa answered, "Yeah, but I can't see nerves. And I can only heal stuff that I can see, unless I'm controlling the mutation. Then I don't heal anyone at all."

Michelle ran behind Melissa and shoved her towards Mike.

"Go fix him, then!"

"Aw. . .they're gonna hold hands! How cute," Adam couldn't help but comment.

Melissa glared at the latter, then grabbed Mike's wrist.

"Thanks," said Mike, flexing his fingers, making sure his hand was working properly.

"Are either of you hurt further?" Michelle asked.

"Well, these black eyes-" Geordie started.

"-will heal in their own time. No," finished Melissa.

"Fine. Did my plan-um," Geordie paused catching a look from Phil, "That is, did our plan work out? What'd you see over there?"

Holly and Melissa groaned, then quickly stumbled away from the group.

"What'd I say this time?" asked Geordie.

"They were just reminded of something they saw at Matt's house. No big deal. They'll be back, after throwing up, momentarily."

"Oops," Geordie turned to the two retreating figures, "Sorry, Holly!"

Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Well? What was there?"

He probed through Phil's mind, and caught a glimpse of the hole in the floor, and it's contents. Adam took a step back.

"What!"

He checked first Gordon's mind, then Michelle's, and Melissa and Holly when they walked back. They all produced the same memory; at different points of view.

"Show Mike and Geordie," Michelle instructed, quietly.

"That's so not true. No way. You're kidding," Adam protested, "What did you really see?"

"How could we all fake the same memory?" Holly reasoned, "It's true."

Adam hesitated, then quickly showed Geordie and Mike the memory. Mike's jaw dropped, and he looked as if he, too, doubted the memory. Geordie shuddered.

"Wow. Ok, I don't know about what the rest of you think, but that's just scary," he said.

"Scary. . .scared. . .scared of basement. . ." Michelle thought, then exclaimed, "Oh bleep! What did you do with her!" she demanded at Adam, who pointed at the bundle he'd put down.

"You killed her!"

Michelle ran over with Mike following.

"Wha…no!" Adam protested.

Michelle carefully unwrapped the bundle, and gently cradled the Akita pup that was inside. It looked pitifully weak.

"That looks hungry," Mike remarked over Michelle's shoulder, then gestured at the pup's ribs, "Look. They're sticking out."

"PUPPY!" Holly was a well-known fan of dogs. After all, she owned about four.

"Let's see?" Melissa liked cats better, but the puppy looked cute. Why not?

The group started to crowd around, but Michelle pushed her way through.

"NO. You guys discuss stuff, and I'll take care of her."

Michelle turned to the group, and saw they were still staring at the dog.

"TALK!"

The others immediately stopped staring.

"How's she gonna feed it though?" Gordon asked.

Mike suddenly thought of something.

"She can morph the female form of anything. . ." he started.

Adam blinked.

"No way!" he turned to Michelle, "You're not. . ."

Michelle had already morphed into an Akita. That had already had puppies and therefore could feed them...

"She really wants that dog, doesn't she?" Phil asked.

"Well, she did want a dog for as long as I've known her," Melissa answered, "And Akita is one of her favourite breeds."

"Couldn't this be considered kind of. . .you know. . .wrong?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah," Adam answered, "But she did promise the puppy's mother."

"Don't let her hear you disapprove, though," Holly warned.

"Why not?" asked Gordon.

"She'll morph something huge and eat you. She's already devoted to that dog," Holly answered.

"Yeah, right! Like she can morph anything that powerful," Gordon said sceptically, then stopped, "Can she?"

"What's to stop her?" Melissa asked, "If she can morph the wind, then who knows what else she can do?"

Mike nodded, "She's gotten really good. She can morph her arm, to, say. . .a claw, while the rest of her stays human. She best at mythical stuff, though. Real animals are what you need to be really specific with. Every detail is key. Fake stuff is easier for her to visualise."

"That's why you need DNA, right?" Adam asked.

"I don't actually need it, to be truthful. Michelle could use it too, but she's really independent with this stuff."

"So researching an animal in detail could work?" Geordie asked.

"Yeah."

Phil laughed then said, "Imagine in science class you're researching amoeba, and then. . ."

Mike groaned while the rest laughed. He didn't find it so funny since he realized Phil could be right. Mike went to check on Michelle. The others kept joking for a little bit longer, then:

"Aw. . ." Holly smiled.

Geordie turned, then grinned, "Isn't that cute?"

"Huh?" Melissa turned, then agreed, "Aw..."

Michael had also morphed, and was sitting by Michelle, as she fed the pup, as if he were guarding them.

"I need my camera," Adam said.

>>Holly, she'll need kibble in about 2 weeks. Think you could donate some?>> Michelle asked.

"Sure. But how do you know?" Holly asked.

>>Instinct,>> Mike answered for her.

"May I pet the puppy?" Melissa asked, making a pleading gesture.

Michelle took an uncharacteristically long time to answer, while the others sat down nearby.

>>Let her finish eating first.>>

>>Why do you think Matt and Scott are...you know…>> Mike hesitated, >>Collecting dogs to->>

"It's not just dogs," Melissa interrupted.

What? Mike looked away from Michelle and the puppy to turn his gaze to Melissa.

"I saw...a few...cat..." now it was Melissa's turn to hesitate.

"Yeah. We understand," Holly nodded.

"Ok," said Adam, "Why're they collecting animals and..." he turned a little green.

"Decapitating them?" Phil saw the girls shudder, "Hey. It's true."

There was a pause.

"What's Scott's mutation, again?" Geordie asked.

>>Metal dew claws,>> Mike answered.

>>Not metal,>> Michelle disagreed.

She picked up a grey object from the ground nearby with her teeth, and awkwardly tossed it over. Adam bent down and picked it up.

"What's this?" he asked.

>>It's one of Scott's claws,>> said Michelle, turning back towards her small foundling.

Adam tested the edge with a finger, and accidentally nicked himself.

"That's sharp," Gordon nodded.

Holly took the claw from Adam and inspected it herself.

"It looks like it's made of...grey ivory. Wow," she breathed.

"Those could cost a lot. I mean, where do you find grey ivory?" asked Geordie.

"Ok, so he has ivory claws," Adam took the claw back from Holly, "They come out of his wrists?"

"Seems like it," Melissa thought a moment, then added, "Maybe they're retractable in the same way that cats' claws are, with a bit of skin covering them."

"Where'd you get that?" Phil asked.

>>When I was upstairs, in that exercise room they have, there was a huge bucket nearly full of those things. I'm guessing they break off naturally, and grow back, stronger, like deer's antlers, only faster,>> Michelle said.

The small Akita gave a small burp, having finished drinking. She sniffed the claw in Adam's hand, growled, then began amusing herself by trying to pounce on Mike's tail.

"The fact that he could become rich doesn't tell us why they're killing those animals," Geordie shook his head, "What's Matt's mutation?"

Michelle stopped watching the pup to look at Holly. Holly stopped toying with her hair to look at Melissa. Melissa stopped tearing up grass to look at Michelle. There was an awkward silence.

"All of you stalking him, and none of you know," Adam frowned, "You all sicken me. I don't even want to know what you're all thinking while you watch him."

"Well look who's doing a good job!" Gordon exclaimed sarcastically. Holly let a wind current blow some dry leaves at his head.

>>I think he's abnormally fast and strong,>> Mike offered, then added, >>And I think this puppy's abnormally annoying. One moment…>>

Mike reached down, carefully picked up the dog by the scruff of its neck with his teeth, and dropped it on Michelle. The pup yelped and scrambled so that it sat with Michelle in- between it, and Mike. Holly wasn't thinking about what Matt's mutation was, though. Holly was thinking about Matt working out. She imagined his sinewy muscles rippling, (his shirt was off, of course) beads of sweat dripping down from his forehead...Geordie wondered why she suddenly sighed so dreamily.

>>That's true,>> agreed Michelle, >>Fighting him was tough. It was hard to bite him or whatever; he was never where you expected him to be.>>

"They could be training," Melissa offered.

All teens stared at her. The puppy just yawned.

"They might be trying to get stronger," Melissa explained.

"Only, why?" Gordon asked, then blinked and queried, "Holly, what was that notebook you brought with you downstairs?"

Holly slapped her forehead and held the brown book up.

"Oops."

She still had Matt's journal with her.


	18. Matt Munro's Journal

(A note from the author: Ok, I refuse to make the stupidarrow things, so, I'm typing telepathy in **bold** and in _italics_, so that it will be **_bold-italics_** from now on.)

**_Melissa, you're smart. You skim through the journal, then summarise it,_** Mike suggested.

"Okay! Sure!"

Melissa eagerly reached out for the journal, but Holly held onto it, out of Melissa's reach.

"Oh, no. That's ok. I'm smart too; _I'll_ read it first," Holly said, but half opening the book, Melissa snatched it back.

"No way. _I'll_ read it. Didn't you have that scrap of fabric?"

"Dangit…I dropped it somewhere."

**_What're they doing,_** Mike asked Michelle.

**_They wanna read the journal to see if Matt mentions them, I bet,_** Michelle answered, laughing silently.

"That's a good reason to check and see what dastardly plan Scott and Matt are up to," Gordon said sarcastically.

"_Dastardly_?" Geordie stared at Gordon incredulously, "Since when do you say word like 'dastardly'? That's more like something I would say."

"I've probably been hanging around you guys for too long," Gordon said thoughtfully.

"Whatever. Let's take a vote. Whoever's in favour of a _boy_ reading the journal _out loud_ so that all of us can know what's in it at the same time, raise a hand or paw," Phil announced, raising his paw. Er, hand.

Everyone raised a hand, excluding Michelle and Mike, considering they raised paws, and Melissa, who just didn't want to agree. Even the puppy raised a paw, mimicking Michelle's gesture.

"Aw…no fair," Melissa grumbled, "Holly and Michelle get guys that openly like them already. All I've got is my invisible, non-existent boyfriend the Ant-god Therbu."

**_Therbu! _**Mike tried raising an eyebrow, then remembered he was a dog, and cocked his head to one side instead.

**_Didn't I tell you? Melissa got really bored one recess in grade seven, and made up the Ant-god Therbu,_** Michelle smiled a dog's smile (Author's note: Dogs _can_ smile!) **_Ever since then, he's been popping up everywhere._**

"Moving right along, I self-elect myself to read the journal," Adam said, lifting up the journal towards him telekinetically and opening the book before anyone could stop him.

As Adam opened the journal to find something that might be of relevance or interest, Michelle demorphed and held the puppy as it fell asleep. Mike returned to human for as well and let Michelle lean on his shoulder. Gordon and Phil played Rock, Paper, Scissors for lack of anything better to do, while Geordie and Holly tried talking Melissa into healing Geordie's eyes.

"What're you gonna name her?" asked Mike to Michelle, gesturing towards the puppy.

"I'm kind of afraid to name her…" Michelle's voice trailed off.

"Your parents…?" Mike let the question hang in the air, and Michelle sighed.

"If it's not one, it's the other. I know they both like dogs, but dad may not want to spend all his time training it, and my mom won't want to clean up after it."

"Nat could help. He may pull pranks on you, but he listens to you. And Ivy. She's getting married next month, but that should be enough time to housebreak this puppy. And _I'll_ help," Mike looked closely at Michelle, then said, "You've already named her, haven't you?"

"…yes…and that's kind of a bad thing. I'm becoming too attached to her."

_Yeah, you only fed her with your milk_, Mike thought, but instead he said, "What's the name?"

"Sagitar; Sadge for short. I got it from a book, I think, and I just like the sound of it."

Michelle sat up straight, and carefully put the puppy down on the ground. I kicked a little, rolled over, then continued on sleeping. Stretching, Michelle yawned, then let herself slouch a little.

"She's real cute, isn't she?" Mike murmured, putting his arms around Michelle.

"Wait until she tears up the house; then we'll see-"

"I was talking about you," Mike interrupted.

"Shut up."

Michelle pasted on a grin and elbowed Mike in the ribs, but quickly glanced at the boy flipping through the journal. Adam was watching her, but he quickly looked at the little, brown book again, and forced himself to read. Mike continued flirting.

"Well, you ar-"

"Didn't I say 'shut up'?"

"_I_ didn't hear anything."

Michelle pushed away from a smiling Mike and glared at him. But after a moment she made herself smile at him again.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Michelle and Mike, startled, turned to see that Geordie and Holly were still arguing with Melissa.

"Why can't you heal his eyes?" Holly asked for the umpteenth time.

"I look so screwed up!" Geordie added (again).

"That's your own problem for being so sensitive about your name," Melissa shrugged, then suggested, "And stop using the same arguments over and over again. If it didn't work once, it won't work again. Can't you freeze ice to perfectly mold to your eye? Melt some water over it, then freeze it before it drips away."

"I haven't gotten so good as to be able to control fire and ice without being able to see it properly with both eyes," Geordie said, half annoyed that his fact was true, but also half proudly, considering that he'd bested the unbeatable, smart and intelligent Melissa.

"But you have to admit these eyes will draw attention to Geordie," Holly pointed out.

"I refuse to stoop to saying that I walked into a wall," he frowned, then added, "People might start to question what I've mixed myself up with on Thursday nights."

"Well…it's true…we don't need attention drawn to any of us…" Melissa nodded thoughtfully, then concentrated on Geordie's black eyes.

Slowly, as Holly watched, the black sircles faded to purple-blue, to dark red, to pink, and then to his normal colour of skin.

"That's better," Geordie mumbled, feeling carefully around his eyes, as if he might feel what colour they were.

"What he means is 'thank you'," Holly said to Melissa.

"Haven't you found anything useful yet?" Phil asked Adam.

"…not really," Adam answered, then smiled, "e writes a lot of crummy poetry in here, though. Oh! Melissa, you're in here."

"What does he say about me?" Melissa asked eagerly.

"It says, and I quote:

'Dear journal,

Melissa, this girl I met today, helped me out with my algebra homework during lunch today. I think I get what a monomial is now. It has something to do with algebra, and math. She was really…'"

At this point, Adam turned to Phil, pointing to the next word. Phil chuckled as he read,

"…'_paytient_' with me, since it took all of lunch for me to get it. Ill ask Scott what grade you don't need to take math in. Then I can put it into that calender Hannah gave to me last week. Hannah gave me a calender so that Id remember when our dates are. She thinks I ferget, but I don't. Its just that some of the times our dates are on are also when Scotts friends come over. Id tell Hannah about it but Scot said never to tell anyone about anything that has to do with our mutations. And Scotts friends are mutants like Scott and me…'"

"Stop. Stop."

Gordon waved his arms, drawing the others' attentions to him, and asked, "Does Matt mention 'Scott's friends' anywhere before this? If so, you should read that first."

"Finding out who they are and what they want would be really helpful right about now," said Geordie:I mean, for all we know, Scott's a pimp and his friends could be his-"

"Shut up!" Michelle exclaimed, "Not in front of the innocent puppy!"

"It doesn't say a thing…wait…" Adam quickly flipped a few pages back, then said, "Sorry. Two pages were stuck together with what looks like pizza sauce. Anyway, listen:

'…The friends Scott were telling me about came over today, to see if wed be any help. There were 4 guys. Well, 3 were guys, but 1 was a chick. 1 was this really old man. Another was this tall guy even compared to me and Im pretty tall. Plus, he had black eyes. And the last guy was this short dude in a big trench coat with bad posture. But I know why he wore the big trench coat. He was green! He had green skin and green hair! He didnt even dye it. It was always green! And the tall guy had long hair. He looked kind of like a lion. I thought the lady was hot, until I hound out that isn't what she really looks like. Shes blue! And has red hair, which looks really weird. And she said I was real shallow, and I dont know what she meant, but it didn't sound nice. But her voice is kind of cool. Her names Ms. Tik or something like that. The old guys named Magneto but I need to cal him Mr. Lensher in public. The green guys name is toad, and the tall guys Sabertoth. They've got cool names. Magneto says that since theyre mutants they had mutant names. He also said Scott and I should get mutant names too. I wonder what my name should be. Im strong and fast. Scott says im not smart and its true but thats got nothing to do with my mutation. Scotts jelus I think since he just has those elephent tusk things. I told him that maybe his name could be 'Elephent Man' but he got all mad. I dont see whats so bad about it. I think it sounds cool. Scott said I should be called 'Insipid' of 'Vapid'. I like the sound of 'Vapid'. I think it means fast. So that will be my name. And Scott is 'Ivwar'. He said that means 'ivory' in french. I guess its ok. But were not even french.'

And that's the end of the entry," Adam said, closing the book, then added, "I've got this strange urge to use spell check, suddenly."

"Is it just me, or does Matt seem a bit…simple?" asked Gordon, trying to put the question lightly.

Michelle and Holly nodded slowly, but Melissa shook her head.

"Just because he can't spell 'elephant'-"

"And 'patient' and 'calendar' and 'forget' and 'jealous'…" Adam trailed off after getting a glare from Melissa before she continued.

"Like I was saying, just because he can't spell 'elephant', doesn't mean that he's an idiot. Look at Adam," Melissa argued, "He spells 'glacier' like 'clacien'."

"Only once," defended Adam, "And I was under pressure. I mean, can you concentrate when Michelle's squinting her eyes at you because she _actually_ knows the answer to the geography question, and three other people are depending on me to get the question right so that our team can _actually_ get a point, and everyone else is jumping out of their chairs, screaming for their team-mates to write the answer down…I can't write under that kind of pressure!"

"Are you actually admitting that Adam's not an idiot?" Phil asked.

Melissa opened her mouth to argue again, then sighed instead.

"Come on, you guys. Matt's all I have."

"You don't even have him," Geordie pointed out.

Melissa slouched.

"Exactly."

Mike thought for a moment, then asked, "Why'd Scott get all huffy about being called 'Elephant Man'?"

"There was this really old, black and white movie about an elephant man, who was a man, but with a really deformed head, making him look like he had an elephant's forehead," Geordie answered.

"Yeah, I saw that movie," Phil said, "He didn't need to sleep, and he was supposed to be really smart, probably due to the huge brain in his head."

Mike nodded, while Michelle rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, that's relevant. Anyway, what do these so-called friends want?"

"I haven't found that yet," answered Adam, as he paged through Matt's journal again, "Give me more time."

"Oh s(bleep)!" Geordie suddenly yelled, "What time is it!"

(Author's note: Why can't I put asterisks? Whenever I do, they disappear when I load the text into Document Manager. WHY?)

Gordon realized that it had steadily been getting darker. Now, the sun was just disappearing behind some houses.

"It's…past 8 o'clock!" he groaned, glancing at his watch.

"Nat will be finishing his homework soon, and my parents and Ivy are coming home in less than 15 minutes…" Michelle thought wildly, "I'll have to morph and carry Sadge in order to get home before they find out I'm not there."

"I told mom and dad I'd be home by eight," Holly thought.

"I have math homework, don't I?" thought Geordie, "...meh. I'll finish it tomorrow morning."

"I'm supposed to feed the cats' dinner today," thought Melissa, "They're not going to be happy with a late meal."

"I told Kael I'd meet him on MSN by eight," Gordon mentally kicked himself.

"I was supposed to play Pac-Man with Nat once he was done his homework, wasn't I?" thought Mike.

"Do I have anything planned?" Phil asked himself, then snapped his fingers, "Oh yeah. I was going to watch 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' for the 98th time this month."

"Why does everyone seem to have plans today?" thought Adam, eavesdropping on everyone else's thoughts, "Except for maybe me. I have nothing to do today."

"Phil, Melissa, why don't you two teleport everyone into their rooms before they get into trouble?" Mike suggested.

"But I haven't been into everyone's room. I need to know what I'm getting myself into," Phil said.

"What if everybody visualised what their room looks like, then Adam showed you?" suggested Holly, "Wouldn't that work?"

"There's only one way to find out," Adam said.

He and Phil latched onto Melissa's arms, and Holly hung onto her shoulder.

"I know that Phil's never been into my room," siad Holly, "Now Adam, this is what it looks like."

"How do you know?" thought Phil to himself.

Holly mentally simulated her room, recalling where her bed was, the desk, her bookshelf, even the 37 pictures and the 'Fellowship of the Ring' poster on the walls, as well as what curtains she had.

"That's great," Adam said, "The more detailed the better. Think you could show me the floor?"

Holly nodded, and visualised the latest state of her dirty laundry pile by her closet, her clean laundry pile by the foot of her bed, the textbooks and homework pile on and around her desk, and her instrument, music, and music binders pile by the music stand she jacked from her school's music room.

"You stole a music stand!" Adam exclaimed.

"Like you never did," Phil reminded Adam.

"Good point. Never mind."

Adam took Holly's mental picture and sent it over to Phil.

"Ok. I'm teleporting now, and if any of you don't want to go anymore, well too bad," Phil announced.

A puff of blue smoke replaced the four teens, then Phil, Melissa, and Adam returned.

"All in one piece," commented Michelle, "That's good. But why do you all look so disgruntled?"

"One of Holly's dogs was on her bed," answered Phil.

"It bit Melissa, growled at Phil, and licked me," Adam complained, still wiping drool off of his chin.

"It must have smelled 'cat' on Phil and Melissa," said Gordon thoughtfully.

"I'm allergic to fur..." Adam grumbled angrily.

"It can't be that bad," Mike said, "You're not dead on account of Sadge here," he added, gesturing towards the still napping puppy.

"Oh, so you've _named_ her now," Adam said, still ticked off and checking his chin for more drool.

Michelle shrugged, then said, "Great. Now that we konw that the whole 'image transfer' thing works, we all need to get home. Phil, Adam and Melissa; all of you get Gordon home. Phil, I'm assuming you've seen Geordie's room before, and you've seen my room, so those shouldn't be a problem. Oh, and Adam? I don't think you need to go with Phil and Melissa once Phil knows what the place looks like."

"Ok, great," Phil interrupted, "So let's go now. First Gordon, then Geordie, then I'll take Mike, Michelle and the dog, then Adam, and finally Melissa. Are we good?"

"Yup," said Adam, already checking Gordon's mental picture of his room.

(about 15 minutes later...)

"Adam, you might as well come with us so that we save time," said Melissa.

"Meh. Ok," Adam said, then asked, "Do we _all_ really need to be in contact with Melissa? I mean, Melissa get the other person's mutation, so why can't the other person get hers? You know what I mean?"

"That might work..." nodded Phil, thoughtfully, "Let's try it."

Phil took Adam's hand, who took Melissa's hand; Melissa latched onto Mike, who held Michelle's hand, and the latter held onto Sagitar.

"Let's hope this works," Michelle muttered to Sagitar.

Phil visualised Michelle's room, then, taking a deep breath, he teleported...

...and in a moment, all five teens and the one dog were in Michelle's room. Sagitar wriggled out of Michelle's arms, landing on her bed, and began sniffing around.

"Well," Melissa started breathing again.

"Oo...my room," Michelle said, sitting on her bed.

"Idiot," Adam teased, grinning.

"Shut up," Michelle and Mike said in unison, with different undertones.

"What do we do about Matt and Scott now?" Melissa asked after a moment.

Michelle, Adam and Mike thought for a moment, then all said,

"Watch them."

"May as well keep an eye on them; see what they're up to," Mike added.

"Maybe we can find out whatever Magneto wants," put in Adam.

"Sounds good," Melissa agreed as Phil nodded.


	19. Some Choices Made

Magneto was most displeased. Ivoire had contacted him once he had realized that something was amiss with the home of that incompetant, Vapid. He strode angrily through the hallway, sidestepping a dog's blood, lost in his own thoughts. Mystique was with him, as well as the two teens. Vapid thought of telling Magneto about his missing journal, then decided it wasn't that important.

"Fabric missing, only to be found in the basement, a covering plank for the pit misarranged, and the last live dog, gone."

The elderly man turned to the two cousins.

"I certainly hope, for all our sakes, that you both find out who did this," he said.

Ivoire swallowed a scowl, knowing that is was only for he and Matt's sake that they had to find the housebreakers. Mystique had already informed both of them that they were dispensable. Magneto did not need links in Canada; once he had dealt with the US, all the other countries would surely follow. But Ivoire also knew that if Magneto failed, the next target he had in mind was their own, more northern country.

"I will find out directly, sir," Scott nodded, keeping his eyes down, "I mean, _we_ will find out who broke in, sir."

"We will," Matt echoed, adding a belated, "Sir."

"Good," Magneto smiled, suddenly cheerful, as he turned towards the door, "We'll be seeing you in another week or so. By the way," Magneto looked over his shoulder, his hand on the doorknob, "The world leaders are soon meeting together. Just another month or two, and our plan will be under way."

Scott pasted on a smile, "That's wonderful, sir."

Scott waited until he had heard the two older mutants drive away before he rounded on Matt, punching him hard in the stomach.

"How could you let that happen?" he hissed, as if afraid that Magneto might still be in hearing range.

"Ow...easy on my tummy," Matt wheezed, rubbing where he had been hit.

"I don't care!" Scott growled into his face, "Focus, Matt! There are other mutants out there, cuz, and not all of them are on our side! You remember what kind of choice Magneto said they made?"

"The stupid choice," Matt mumbled. He was very upset that Scott had punched him; he was trying the best he could.

"Do you remember _why_ their choice was stupid? Well? Do you?" Scott was yelling now, cuffing Matt on the side of his head.

"Because they think there'll be peace. That mutants and humans can get along," Matt answered half-heartedly.

"Exactly," Scott said, his voice at a normal level now, "Remember Chris, your sister? She's one of them too, and now she's shipped off to some boarding school, because your mom had to hide her. That's what you getting for trying to find peace with humans. I'm going upstairs. Try not to mess something else up while I'm there."

Matt dragged his feet to his room, and sat down on his bed.

"I may not know much," he whispered to himself, "But I know there's a chance. I'm friends with Hannah, and she's not a mutant." Matt paused, then realized that that did not count. She did not know about his mutation. "Should I tell her?" Matt thought for a little longer, then shook his head, "No. Not her. If she doesn't understand, then I'm in big trouble." Matt thought carefully again; surely there must be someone he could tell. Then he could prove to Scott and Magneto that there could be peace. And maybe he could get his sister back somehow.

(Meanwhile, in the Gilpo household)

"Mike, c'mere," Michelle beckoned as she sat at her computer.

It was 9 o'clock, and both morphers had had a brush with luck. Michelle's parents still had not arrived yet, and Nat had promised not to tell them that the teens were late. Michelle loved her Dragon-child. Nat also did not ask about Sagitar. Rather, he just enjoyed playing with the puppy after his questioning look was left unanswered, and decided to let his sister handle things. Now, Michelle was on the internet, changed into pyjamas, and waiting for her parents and cousin to come home. Mike looked up from playing with Sagitar, and smiled.

"Why? Have you discovered a site that can finish my English homework?"

"No such luck," Michelle answered, glancing fondly at her brother. Always a morning person, Nat had fallen asleep on the couch, "Everyone's online. Gordon wants to set up a spying schedule."

"Ok," Mike got up, carrying Sagitar, and placed the puppy on the computer desk.

"You stay there," Michelle said, pushing Sagitar into a sitting position in front of the printer, "And you can sit there," she added, gesturing towards the chair she had already placed beside her.

"What? Don't want to share?" Mike said innocently, seating himself comfortably.

"Oh, please," Michelle rolled her eyes, pushing Mike's head away and setting up a joined MSN conversation window.

"You know you want to," Mike grinned, putting an arm on the back of Michelle's chair.

"Here, I'll sign you onto Windows Messenger so that I don't have to type for you," Michelle said, as if she hadn't heard Mike's last comment.

"...hey," Mike said after a moment, "How come you know my password?"

"Ok, now we're all in the same conversation," Michelle said hurriedly, typing into the text box.

"Hi," typed **Violet Baudelaire, **who was really Michelle.

"Wow, the convo's so big..." typed **Oh, so sleepy**, who was Holly.

"No s(bleep), sherlock," **Dude Almighty**/Adam typed.

"Dont tak 2 her like that," **Monty Python forever!** typed. Good ol' Geordie and his obsession.

"dude, learn to typ. i mean tpe. TYPE!" **Phl: Cheer up, Emo kid!** (who was of course Phil) typed.

"wher's melisa?" messaged **Uganda-boy triumphs again**, who, naturally, was Mike.

"I'm in cyberspace! oooooooo!" typed Melissa, who was also **I will fight to the death for the half-mark**.

"ya, there she is," typed **NOOOOOO!**, who was Gordon, "now, who wants 1st shift on matt?"

"...give him a secund b4 he realizes..." Geordie typed.

"NOOOOOOO! DON'T TAKE IT THAT WAY!" Gordon typed.

"aw...:( why not?" Holly typed.

"X-P You need a bf," Michelle typed.

"speaking of which, are you and mike official yet?" Adam asked.

"..." Michelle typed.

"ask her out and get it over with, mike. you know you want to," Phil typed.

"Does this mean I get first shift with Matt?" Melissa typed.

"Ur the 1st 1 2 say, so i guess so," Gordon typed.

"kk. im making a spredsheet as we type," Geordie typed.

"Spell my name right. It's M-E-L-I-S-S-A."

"the shift lasts for how long?" Mike asked.

"good question," Gordon typed, "How long should they last?"

"How about 2 ppl for the whole day, then we switch every day?" Michelle typed.

"Sounds good," Holly typed, "I'll pair up with Melissa."

"hey Gordon, wanna b my partner?" Geordie typed.

"k."

"I'll work with Mike," Michelle typed.

"then adam and i are together. again." Phil typed.

"would you rather be with Mike?" Adam typed.

"can i?"

"no," typed Mike.

"jerk! and jerkette! P," typed Phil.

"aw...I need a band-aid (:)" Michelle typed.

"Look, it's Marge Simpson! ((((((((((8)" Holly typed.

"ppl, focus. Ok, the order is Melissa/Holly, Adam/Phil, Gordon/Geordie, and Michelle/Mike, starting 2morrow, ok?" Gordon typed.

"wait...what about for Scott?" Adam typed.

"how about in reverse order? m/m, then g/g, then a/p, then m/h?" Phil suggested.

"Sounds good," Holly typed.

"yeah, i think so too," Michelle typed.

"yeah, goerdie, use that," Gordon typed.

"should that include weekends?" Mike typed.

"that'd probably b best," Holly typed.

"ill set the schedule up on my blog," Geordie typed.

"Ok. Now I've got homework to do," Melissa typed, then signed off.

"my mom wants me off the computer...:(" Adam typed, before leaving the window.

"gordon, think you could help me with my math homework?" Phil typed.

"sure. ill open another window," Gordon typed, and he and Phil left the conversation.

"speaking of hw, we need to fix up that dialogue we're writing," Holly typed.

"o no. the comp is randomly shutting down..." Geordie typed.

"don't you dare," Holly typed.

"Yeah, u should probably work on that," Michelle typed.

"hypocrit," Geordie typed.

"dont get her mad. she'll sic her friends on u," Mike typed.

"fine. but only 4 half and hour," Geordie typed, and he and Holly left the conversation.

"And then there were two," Michelle typed.

"Hm...does the room seem a lot smaller to u?" Mike typed.

"No...just emptier," Michelle typed.

"Um...we're in the same room."

"Right. Why're we typing?"

"Ok, stop!" Michelle pushed Mike's hands away from the keyboard, before he could type an answer.

Mike laughed, "Maybe you should turn the computer off," he suggested.

"I'm way ahead of you," Michelle said, already doing so.

Looking over, both saw that Sagitar was napping, as puppies were apt to do. Michelle gave her a gentle pat, then walked quietly to her brother.

"Hey. Hey, kid," Michelle said quietly, gently shaking the 9-year-old.

"Nngh...?" Nat looked up at his sister blearily.

"You may as well go to bed, Dragon-child."

"'Kay, até," Nat said, calling Michelle 'big sister' in Tagalog. He stumbled up somehow and managed to get to his room without any help.

"He's ok," Mike said, seeing Michelle watch after her brother.

"I know. Just making sure he doesn't trip over something," Michelle said. She turned to Mike, and caught him staring at her, "What?"

"Nothing," Mike said, shaking his head. He walked to the computer desk and scooped up Sagitar, who was still dozing, "Let's take Sadge to your room for now. We can tell your parents about her tomorrow."

"Ok," Michelle said, "I'll get a box for her."

Walking downstairs, Michelle's head was elsewhere. _What was that look...?_ Michelle shook her head, _Whatever. That's not important right now._ But the gentle look in Mike's eyes kept coming back to her. _He really is a sweet boy. No! Focus on school and the mission. _Holding a box that she had chosen, Michelle realised that she was staring dreamily into space. _Ok, so I like him. But still...I'm not even entirely sure if he really likes me. What if he turns out like Adam?_ But Michelle knew, even while she was thinking it, that this was not the case.

Walking back up the stairs, Michelle made a slight detour to the closet where her family kept all the blankets, and choose an old, worn-out one for Sagitar's box. Arranging the blanket, she took what was now Sagitar's bed into her room, and found Mike sitting on the bed, waiting for her. Carefully, he placed the puppy in the box, and Michelle put it close to the bed, where she would not step on it.

"There," Michelle sighed, sitting down on the bed beside Mike, "My parents don't check on me, so they won't find her until tomorrow. If then."

"So we're done, then?" Mike asked.

"Yeah," Michelle said, stifling a yawn.

"Aw...you're so cute..." Mike teased, "Your tongue lifts up when you yawn."

"Shut up," Michelle grinned, and closed her eyes, curling up on her bed, "Ok, I'm going to sleep. G'night."

"No, stay awake," Mike said, pulling her back up.

"No," Michelle pretending to lie down again.

"You're staying awake," Mike said, pulling her up a little to hard. Holding her to stop her from falling off the bed, Mike found his arms around Michelle with her head resting against one of his arms.

"You did this on purpose," Michelle accused, looking up at him.

"Maybe," Mike said as innocently as he could, though he was grinning.

"Stop laughing," Michelle smiled, gently shoving his face.

"I'm not," Mike said, facing her again, still grinning.

"Ok, let me up," Michelle said, laughing.

She struggled to sit up, as Mike tried to keep her down. As she kept trying, she realized her face was quite close to Mike's, and let herself lean back down. Mike loosened his hold, and Michelle sat up again. Both teens ended up staring at the floor.

"Um...Shell?"

"Yeah?"

"I, um...I really..."

Both teens looked up and their eyes met. Mike lost what he was going to say.

"I really..." he looked down again, but Michelle kept watching him, "I'm...really glad I get to work you, no! I mean," Mike felt his cheeks flushing, "I'm really glad I get to work _with_ you! With the mission! Not...Oh, gawd..."

Mike looked up at Michelle, expecting her to be annoyed with him. But she wasn't. She was smiling at him. A smile grew on his face as well, and before they knew it, both were laughing, as two friends. Michelle grinned, and leaned on Mike shoulder.

"That was...yeah," Mike said.

"Mm-hm," was her reply.

"What I meant was, I really like you, Michelle."

"I know."

Michelle burst out giggling again at the look on his face.

"Well, I didn't know, but...you know how it is."

"So you just like seeing me suffer. Is that it?"

"Well...a little..." Michelle made as small gesture with two fingers, "Oh, come on. You're cute when you're embarrassed."

Mike covered his face with his hands and sighed as Michelle giggled again. Throwing her arms around him, she gave him a hug, and a peck on the cheek.

"I really like you too, Mike," she said, softly.

Their eyes met again, and Michelle saw the same gentleness in Mike's eyes that made her heart ache. Putting a hand on her cheek, Mike asked quietly, "Be my girlfriend?"

"Depends."

"What!"

"Relax. Are you just asking me because Phil told you to, or do you mean it?"

"I mean it. I really do," Mike's pleading tone changed to a firmer one, "You know that."

"I'm sorry. I wan't sure," Michelle said apolegetically, "You understand, right? Because of what happened last time..."

"Shell," Mike carefully stroked her cheek, "I know. You want someone who you can trust, and who'll respect you. And you deserve it. I'm not saying I'll be perfect, but I just want you to be happy, and maybe I can at least do that. I'm not pressuring you, but...I want to be able to take care of you, and this is the best way I can. Do you understand?"

Michelle felt her heart melting at the look in his eyes. He had won, and she knew it. And she found herself not minding in the slightest bit.

"I understand," Michelle said softly, and flicked a bit of his hair out of his eyes before saying, "And I'd like to be your girlfriend."

Mike looked away, and Michelle grew worried in the silence that followed. Heart pounding, she thought maybe he was teasing her after all.

"Mike, if you're teasing..."

"I'm not," Mike said, voice almost cracking as he looked back at her, "I'm just..."

Leaning forward, he aimed for her lips, but Michelle, who was startled, edged back, so he ended up kissing her chin.

"Gawd!" Mike exclaimed, sitting back up, "Could this get any more awkward!"

Michelle laughed quietly out loud, and Mike joined her, holding her close.

"Ok, now?" Michelle looked up at Mike.

Leaning forward again, this time he didn't miss.

(see, Gordon! I added a new chapter! ...ok, I know you probably didn't care very much for that last part. But too bad!)


	20. It wasn't Geordie

"He's walking…and walking…and…quick! He's entering a store!"

Holly closed her eyes as she practiced a new trick she had discovered. Leaning against the wall of the store behind her, she concentrated on the echoes of the wind that was breezing around the corner. Melissa had 'stolen' some of Michelle's mutation, and was with Holly in wind morph. Melissa was wafting around the store, or more specifically, around Matt. Holly heard the wind shifting around Matt, and could see a fuzzy picture of her favourite enemy. She could not quite make out the features of his face, and of course she couldn't see the colours of his clothes, but she knew his height and basic build, and by now she knew what his profile looked like. Holly thought that she might be able to recognize him on a windy day, and wondered if she could see the same way with rain.

"Hm…what aisle is he in? Mozart, flow around the items on a shelf there," Holly whispered, sending a tendril of wind into the store after Melissa.

It was about a week after the mutants had broken into Matt's home. Nothing seemed to have happened yet; Scott and Matt seemed to be like the rest of the teens in thier school: interested in the Halloween Dance that was coming up. Today was Holly and Melissa's turn to stalk Matt, while Michelle and Phil were shadowing Scott somewhere else. Such was the friends' weekends nowadays.

Melissa heard, or rather felt, Holly's message and quickly complied. Holly saw what seemed to be hairs on the shelves; the air-silhouettes looking like exceedingly thin fibres.

"Matt's looking for a wig!" Holly thought, "Does this mean that his dreadlocks are fake?"

Melissa, as she floated, realised what Holly might construe the items on the shelf for, and wafted around the items in a different direction. This time, Holly saw in her mind's eye what looked to be a solid, rectangular block of material. This confused Holly even more; how could something be so thin, yet so large…

"Paper!" Holly almost said out loud, "He's looking for another journal!"

"Hey, you."

Holly opened her eyes.

"Oh! Hey Geordie!" she exclaimed, giving him a big hug.

"What're you up to?" the boy asked. He looked around, "You look kinda weird just standing here, no offense."

"Yeah, I guess I do..." Holly grinned, and Geordie grinned too. Of course she didn't care.

"I'm watching...you know. Matt..." Holly lowered her voice.

"Oh. I see," Geordie nodded, "I'll keep walking to my place, then," he said, and giving her a wink began walking away.

"'kay. I'll see you tomorrow at school," called Holly.

Geordie gave her a wave and kept going. Holly hugged herself with glee.

**_He's a sweet guy, sometimes_**, she thought, **_Maybe I should stop teasing him about Matt_**.

The store door opened, and the boy she just named in her head walked out, holding a plastic bag.

"Hi!" Holly waved, smiling big.

"Um...hey," Matt nodded unsurely at her.

**_Oh sh--...he doesn't know who I am. We don't go to the same school... _**Holly thought, then shrugged it off, **_Meh. I'm a friendly person._**

She watched Matt walk down the road, the same way that Geordie had gone, then blinked.

"Crap. Um...Mozart, follow fast," she whispered to the breeze that she could sense was Melissa, and half ran down the street to her school.

Later, at Holly's school...

"What's up?" Melissa asked, after she had transformed back into herself.

"I spoke to Geordie today," Holly started, then stopped when she heard Melissa snort, "What?"

"Do I really have to hear about your unofficial boyfriend right now?" the chubby girl asked, "Is this relevant?"

"Very," Holly said solemnly.

"Fine," Melissa sighed, sitting down on the school's steps, "Go on."

"I spoke to Geordie, only it wasn't Geordie," Holly explained, "Someone took Geordie's form and spoke to me."

"How do you know? That's pretty serious," said Melissa.

_**Please be wrong**, _Melissa thought fervently, **_A morpher against us is someone to be reckoned with._**

"He greeted me with, 'Hey, you', and we both know that that's too cool for Geordie. Not that Geordie isn't cool...just not that way," Holly said, "He also winked at me."

"He may just be having a confident day," Melissa pointed out.

"That's what I thought too, but why was he here? This is the edge of Toronto; Geordie lives like downtown," Holly said.

"He may have been visiting someone, or working on a project with someone. That store was near your school," Melissa argued.

"Ok...then how come his eyes were the wrong colour?" Holly asked.

Melissa looked straight at Holly.

"Are you sure? Explain."

**_You sound like a teacher_**, Holly thought idly, then spoke.

"His eyes look brown from a distance, but up close, they're actually green," Holly said.

"Of course you would notice something like that," Melissa smiled.

"Oh shut up," Holly laughed, "Let's go find Michelle and Phil. We _have_ to have a group meeting. Do you still have Michelle's power?"

"Yup. I remembered to keep a link to it this time," Melissa said, motioning to one red thumbnail.

"Lets morph into birds or something," Holly suggested, taking Melissa's hand, "It's easier to control than wind."

The two girls transformed into a fair impersonation of robins, not realizing that yellow eyes were watching them from within the school.

* * *

_To anyone who was reading this, I am SO SORRY for not writing! ...Namely Gordon. Please do not throw tomatoes or any other object at me. Rocks count as objects. Again, Sorry! I'll try to write at least a chapter once every week. ...that being said, don't expect much._

_-Esperwen_


	21. Enter Mystique

_This is so dumb, I'm not even going to elaborate_, Michelle thought.

A smoky grey cat stretched and yawned on a house's roof, and lay back down again.

"6:27pm, still no movement from the Elephant Man," Phil said, poofing in beside the cat, "Plenty of bowel movement, though."

**_Ew!_** Michelle groaned, swiping a clawed paw at Phil's combat boot, **_Never say that again!_**

"What, it's true," Phil defended, giving her two thumbs up.

**_Yeeech,_** Michelle shook her furry cat head, **_Can we go now? He's not going anywhere today; it's a Wednesday. Who goes anywhere on a Wednesday?_**

"You sure 6:28 is late enough?" Phil asked, in a low voice, "I know you don't like sitting on Scott's roof, Uriko, but if we miss something important, we're screwed."

_**It's already getting darker. Early October, and though it isn't chilly, it's still getting dark. Dark means that his ears will be sharper, and we stand a higher chance of being caught.**_

"Two and a half hours is long enough...ok, let's check in with Holly and Melissa at John G., and then we can go home," Phil said, and picking up the cat, he poofed away.

"Hi, Phil. Hey, Michelle," Holly waved, sitting on the bridge at the top of the Playscape.

"Find anything new?" Melissa asked, sitting at the top of one slide.

"Hey, and hey," Phil waved to each girl.

**_Nah, we got nothing_**, Michelle said, sitting at the bottom of the slide that Melissa was on, **_You wait long?_**

"No, just a few minutes," Melissa said, "But we did learn something. Or at least Holly thinks so; I'm still skeptical myself."

"Why, what'd you learn?" Phil asked, standing with his arms crossed.

"I think there's another morpher out there," Holly said.

**_What? How? Who?_** Michelle asked urgently.

"How do you know?" Phil asked, "Couldn't it have been Mike?"

**_Mike's at home_**, Michelle said blandly.

"He looked exactly like Geordie, only his eyes were the wrong colour," Whirl explained.

"...That could be a problem," Phil nodded, "Why are they posing as Geordie?"

"I think it was that Mystique woman that Matt wrote about in his journal," Melissa said, "Remember how he wrote about some beautiful woman-"

"More like wrote, 'hot chick with nice legs'," Phil joked, but stopped at the look the girls (and cat) gave him.

"Anyway, he wrote about a beautiful woman, and then she turned out to be all blue, or something," Melissa recalled.

"That's right..." Genie nodded.

"You guessed right," came a strange voice to the teens' right.

Out of the trees, Mystique stepped out so that all could see her clearly.

"Well done. Perhaps you kids aren't so useless after all," the mutant said, "I almost lost hope when Curly over there fell for my transformation so easily."

"I didn't 'fall for it' so easily. You still made a mistake," Whirl said in a low voice, angry at being labelled as 'Curly'.

"True...but I were really after you, I would have fought instead of just walked away," Mystique said calmly, "And you don't want to fall into a scrap with me."

"Who are you?" asked Genie, cutting in and standing beside Holly.

"You know my name already."

"Why are you here?" asked Mozart, sliding down and picking up Uriko before facing the blue woman.

"My...mentor, Magneto, wanted to know who had broken into one of his allies homes," Mystique said, shrugging.

"Any other reasons?" asked Whirl in a tight voice; she still hadn't let the 'Curly' comment slide by.

"Well...I also have a message," Mystique said in a suddenly hard voice, turning her yellow eyes to the four teens, "You're either with us, or against us. And you can't be with us _and_ the humans at the same time."

"Is that some kind of threat?" Genie asked smoothly, but his friends could see that he was tense.

"It may be," said Mystique, holding up one hand, "Or it may not," she continued, holding up another hand, "It all depends on your group's choice. I don't know how many of you are there, but I know there are more. This...Mike must be a morpher of sorts, and this...Georgie is yet another mutant. And one of you is a telepath; _you_," here she looked at Mozart, "...answered an unspoken question. Perhaps you must discuss with your..._teammates_ your answer to Magneto's offer?"

Mystique raised her eyebrows, and all of them glanced at each other. Mistake.

Mystique moved as fast as if she were a teleporter herself; she landed a hefty roundhouse kick into Phil stomach as she grabbed the back of Holly's head and used it as a boost to flip over Phil's head. She spun and hit Melissa's head with her elbow, and snatched the cat the girl had held before running a safe distance away from all of them.

"Perhaps a hostage is necessary; something tells me this cat is out of the ordinary," Mystique said, holding a squirming cat in front of her, "Let's say...one week until your answer? With all of your..._teammates_ here-ugh!"

Genie and Whirl had glanced at each other, then Genie had teleported right behind the metamorph. Mozart and Whirl still had a link to Uriko's mutation (red thumbnails again), and Mozart morphed into a fair imitation of a black panther, while Whirl became a cross between an eagle and a falcon, and both ran/flew to help their friends, but they didn't need to. Genie hit a pressure point on Mystique's neck hard, and she collapsed, dropping the cat.

"That was for that kick," he growled, rubbing his stomach.

**_Thanks, guys_**, Uriko said, before demorphing and adding, "What the bleep are you supposed to be, Whirl?"

**_I was supposed to be a bald eagle_**, Whirl said ruefully, looking at her strangely colouring wings.

**_I guess you'd better either look at more bird pictures, ask Michelle for some lessons, or stick to your dogs_**, Melissa joked, sitting down on the grass.

"Hey, I wouldn't talk if I were you. Your proportions are all wrong," Uriko said, as Whirl demorphed and knelt beside the crumpled metamorph, "Your panther wouldn't be able to run for very long with those legs."

**_Oh..._**Mozart said, before demorphing as well.

"What do we do with her?" Phil asked, toeing Mystique's still form.

"Well...we ca-!" Michelle started, then collapsed in a heap.

Mystique had transformed into Sabretooth, and had clawed a nasty gouge in Michelle's head as she hit her, knocking her out. Phil teleported back a little, and tried to kick the now rising mutant, but Mystique grabbed Phil's boot and flipped him neatly, causing him to land onto his head. Melissa was easily knocked out like Michelle, and Mystique did the same to Holly, who was half out of her morph.

"Foolish children," Mystique said, picking up her new hostage, Holly, who was still fairly small, "Remember Magneto's offer."

As she morphed into a human and walked away with Holly under her arm, Melissa watched her through slitted eyes. She let the injuries that were more deep into her head heal right away, waiting for Mystique to be gone before totally sealing up the wound on her head.

"Not quite so foolish. You will have your answer soon enough," Melissa said, touching Phil's wrist and Michelle's head so that they might heal as well, and teleported them all to her room, which was empty as usual.

"Soon enough, Mystique."


	22. They have Holly

"That's not good. That's _so _not good, it isn't even funny."

Mike massaged his temples in a distracted fashion. The group were in Michelle's rather spacious basement, sitting on the couches and boxes that were stored there. It was still Wednesday, around midnight; Michelle's father was already asleep, and her mother was at work. Phil had teleported just about everybody in, once Michelle had given him the 'all-clear' via the phone. Geordie was pacing near the door, and Melissa was sitting quietly in a large armchair, facing the door. Mike and Michelle were sitting beside each other on the loveseat to Melissa's right, and Phil and Adam sat on the couch opposite them. Gordon was perched on a box behind Phil and Adam's couch, that was filled with various junk that Michelle's family had stored away, examining a box of seashells. Michelle petted Sagitar, who lay in her lap half-asleep.

"They took Holly," Geordie murmured, as he paced, "They have her..."

"Not to change the subject, but how did you get your parents to let you keep Sagitar?" Melissa asked, turning to Michelle.

"Sagitar acted all cute," Michelle shrugged, "She talked her way into it."

The puppy made a little throaty noise, and shifted her position before quieting down again.

"They love her," Mike said, "But that's irrelevant. Does anyone know where they took Holly?"

"If we did, would we be here, dickwad?" Geordie asked, raising his eyebrows and pointing at Mike.

"Maybe they wanted to regroup," Mike said, raising his hands innocently, referring to Melissa, Phil and Michelle.

"We have no idea," Phil said, shaking his head.

"Mystique did say one week until we needed to answer," Melissa said thoughtfully.

"I don't want here there for a week, I want her back now," Geordie said, seething.

"No need to get possesive on someone who isn't even your girl," Adam said, raising his voice.

"Hey, at least I don't try to flirt with my ex," Geordie shot back.

"That's because you don't have an ex," Adam retorted.

Geordie stepped toward Adam, who jumped up out of his seat.

"You know what, bas-" Geordie began, then Phil jumped up and pushed the two other boys apart.

"Shut up," the teleporter hissed into Geordie's face, "Both of you," he added, turning to Adam, "You make too much noise and we're caught and dead. Or at least just Michelle, and you don't want her dead, do you?"

Adam sat down and crossed his arms sulkily, and Geordie took a step back.

"Fine," Geordie said in a tight voice, "Does anyone have a plan?"

"I do," Gordon said, raising a hand.

Everyone else turned to the oldest of the group.

"You," Melissa said, unbelievingly.

"_I_ don't even have a plan, and _I'm_ the strategist here," Geordie said, shocked, as Phil and Adam nodded.

"The school dance next Monday-" Gordon began, and Michelle cut him off.

"Tell me this is a serious plan," she begged.

"It is, just hear me out," Gordon said, "Everyone will be dressed up, and masks are actually pretty common, even though school rules say not to. The gym will be darkly lit, and everyone is going to be mingling in the crowd."

"Easy for us to hide," Melissa nodded, "And the mingling..."

"You want us to kidnap Matt?" Adam exclaimed.

Phil blinked, "Wow, Gordon, I didn't know you swung that way."

"Oh, shut up," Michelle laughed, and Sagitar looked up sleepily.

"Actually, I was thinking Scott," Gordon said.

"So it's personality you're after, not the looks," Phil said, scratching his chin, and Gordon hit the back of his head.

"You're after the brains of their two-man team," Geordie nodded, "But why?"

"Let them know that we're not that weak; not to be underestimated. They took a team member and we want them back. Also, it's kind of insurance. What if we give them the wrong answer, and they don't return Holly?" Gordon pointed out.

"...I see pros and cons everywhere," Melissa said, "It's an idea...but it's risky."

"Yeah, how do we know Scott and Matt don't have another ally? There's Magneto, Mystique...and how about that huge neanderthal guy that Mystique transformed into?" Phil asked.

"There was a neanderthal?" Michelle asked, confused.

"You got knocked out by him first," Melissa explained.

"Sure...target the coloured person," Michelle mumbled, then shook her head, "I say we kidnap Scott, but not the whole team. Only half; if we're caught, then the other half can still try to get the others out of trouble."

"...You sure the precaution is necessary?" Adam asked, scratching his head.

"Better safe than sorry," Michelle said, "And they don't know how many of us there are. And she thinks that Melissa's probably a telepath; someone answered a question I asked while in morph out loud. And she thinks Holly's a morpher; maybe Holly's able to hide it. She knows Phil teleports, and I'm a special morpher. She also knows Mike is a morpher because we mentioned him. And she probably suspects Geordie of being a mutant. Am I missing anything?"

Michelle looked at Melissa questioningly. The girl thought a moment, then shook her head.

"That's everyone."

"So Gordon and I..." Adam scratched his head again, "We're your 'secret weapons', if you will."

"Well, she knows that most of us are mutants, but not what kind," Mike pointed out, "We still have a good chance. Melissa can be just about anything, she doesn't know Holly can strike her with lightning, and she doesn't know what Geordie can do."

"Not to mention you and Michelle's special techniques," Geordie added, his eyes lighting up.

Michelle squirmed a little where she sat, then stopped when she noticed Sagitar was about to fall of her lap. Straightening the Akita puppy, Michelle thought a little worriedly that the look in Geordie's eyes wasn't at all pleasant.

"Holly told you?" Michelle asked, looking at the puppy.

"You told Holly?" Mike asked in a wry voice, raising an eyebrow at her.

"It's hard to keep secrets from Holly," Michelle defended.

"It's hard to keep secrets from me," Geordie scoffed.

"What special techniques?" Melissa asked, leaning forward in her chair and looking like a cross between an evil overlord in his throne and a mad scientist discovering something new.

"What _kind_ of special techniques?" Adam asked suggestively, earning a swat from Gordon.

"What're you waiting for?" Phil prompted, "Tell us! Spill those beans!"

"_Never_ say that again," Gordon advised, swatting Phil.

"Um...basically, I'm really really good at changing aspects of myself," Michelle said, carefully choosing her words, "But you already knew this. What you didn't know was that I can...fragment myself, so to speak."

"...break up into little pieces?" Melissa stared, along with the rest of the group, "That's the big secret?"

Geordie snorted.

"More like make little copies of herself," he said.

"Seriously? Cloning?" Gordon exclaimed, "Show us! C'mon!"

Michelle held up her hand for all to see, then something interesting happened.

"Goddess above, your hand just fell off!" Melissa exclaimed.

And indeed it did. Sagitar sniffed the disembodied hand in front of her nose, then yawned as it turned into a mini-Michelle.

"That is awesome," Adam breathed, "And you can put your hand back on?"

"Yup," Michelle nodded, and did just that, making the clone of herself become a hand again, and reattaching it, "But I can only fragment small things. For now."

"So what can Mike do?" Gordon asked.

"You know that whole morphing equivalent thing that we were working on?" Mike asked, "I can do something like it; I can change the forms of other objects or beings, without having to change myself. I just need contact."

"Demonstation please," Melissa said, waving a hand imperiously.

Mike rolled his eyes, and Gordon tossed him one of the seashells he had been looking at. Mike deftly caught it, and turned it into a small dagger before tossing it back to Gordon. It hit a box beside Gordon, and the point buried itself within the cardboard.

"I can't change the mass though," Mike shrugged.

"That's ok, that's perfectly ok," Gordon said, "It'll fit into my plan quite nicely."

"So spill," Phil said, and Mike, Michelle and Geordie gathered closer around Gordon, and Melissa leaned in her chair as the group's strategist of the hour outlined his plan.


End file.
